A Circle Border Print Shirt

Back in December, I wanted to use an older piece of fabric for my next shirt in The Border Print Series. I've been collecting border prints for years and knew there were some buried deep in the collection. I just needed to dig them out. After rummaging around in it I touched this piece...

...which was purchased in 2010. Yes, I'm taking it way back. At that time I blogged every fabric purchase, so here's the post regarding the border print. However, this fabric doesn't count towards my 2019 #deepstash garments. I made this in 2018, and I'm just sharing it to the blog.

Supply List ~
- 3 yards of cotton border print fabric from the collection
   (long time residence - 9 years)
- 5/8" coconut buttons from the notions stash 
   (from the days I worked at a button company)
- Interfacing from Steinlauf & Stoeller

Construction ~
Since I was starting with my TNT pattern for this shirt, the challenge was how to use the border print since it only runs down one side of the fabric. It's the side pictured in the photo above. It was wide enough to cut out shirt fronts, the collar & undercollar and the back yoke. Originally I wanted it for cuffs too but didn't have enough. In the end I'm glad I didn't cut the cuffs from the border. I like that the larger circles just runs down the front of the shirt.

This is a lightweight shirting fabric. I bought it to make a summer dress and now I know why it sat in the collection. It's way too lightweight for a dress ~ even a summer dress ~ but it's perfect for a shirt. Especially if I wear it under a cardigan for the winter.

• The construction was similar to every other shirt I've made, the only difference being the way it was cut out. 
• It has a straight hemline, I didn't want a curved one for this version. 
• I used the fold over center front piece because I didn't want to sew on a button band. 
• When I went to fold the button band - the front band was flimsy even when folded 3x. So I added a strip of interfacing to the front to stabilize it. 
• I don't usually do this because the fold of fabric typically is stable enough.

Everything is topstitched in white. I made samples using brown and white thread for the topstitching and the white sample won. Also took pictures of buttons for the front...the brown coconut or a simple 4-hole white one. I went with the brown coconut since I wasn't trying to make a statement with the buttons.  Those are the only construction points worth mentioning for this make. 

So some pictures of the shirt in action ~

I made this cardigan in November 2012. When I was doing the great closet clean-out after changing jobs, I just couldn't let this go. There was so much work associated with it and I loved the pleather accents. I've worn it occasionally when hanging out with friends because it's a great throw on when headed out to dinner. I thought of it when I needed a cardigan to go over this shirt. This is how I will be wearing it to work now...

Conclusion ~
This is the next to last shirt in "The Border Print" series AND it's the 15th shirt I made in 2018. For the last shirt in the series, I had another border print fabric in mind. However, the pattern tetris wasn't working with the fabric. Sometimes what I see in my mind doesn't work well with the actual fabric so I put it back on the shelf. However, I really wanted one more shirt in the series so I pulled a rather conservative shirting purchased from Fabric Mart after the last Sew Camp.

The last shirt in the "Border Print Series" will show up in February. I know this seems to be stretching them out but blogging all of my makes goes with my 2019 goals. Plus, I like having them here on my blog. The next post is my end of the month round-up.

...as always more later!