School Project - Collared Button Down Shirt

This was a tough one. I honestly never thought I was going to finish this shirt. Class is 16 weeks long and this shirt I think took me 10 or 11 class periods to do. I am glad this shirt is done, but not very happy with some of the details on it. I'm glad I had guidance with this one. Otherwise, it would have gone in the trash long before it got finished.

The collar. *sigh* I had to redo this one. Good thing I had extra fabric. I think the best advise I can offer to anyone is ALWAYS have extra fabric. You never know when you might need it. I was plugging along following the instructions (apparently that was my first mistake) when my teacher announced that she has a better, easier, nicer looking way to make a collar. Crap. I already made the collar according to the instructions. Ok, scrap that. Start over. I am not going to provide step by step instructions for most things, but for the things that I find make a real difference I will because I know it made my life more simple, or made the overall garment look a lot nicer. I am happy to share the good tidbits.

For the collar, she had us choose which side was going to be the under side of the collar and cut those pieces 1/4" shorter on the sides that were NOT going to connect with the shirt. And cut the interfacing a total of 1/2" shorter on the sides that were NOT going to connect with the shirt. Melt the fusible interfacing (great stuff by the way) to the under collar. Then sew the top collar pieces to the bottom pieces like normal. By shortening the sides of the back then sewing them together, it pulls the seam under. When you iron and attach the collar to the shirt you do not see the seams, AND you don't have to bother with top stitching to hold anything in place. This all makes the collar crisper and neater looking. Very cool.

Ok, back to non specifics. Button holes are easy when you have the little foot attachment for your sewing machine. I love it. Still trying to figure out machine attached buttons. Never seems to turn out quite right for me, BUT I'm working on it. I also did darts for the first time on this shirt. Start from the outside and work to the point. Easy.

Now that I have done a shirt like this I could do it again a lot quicker, but it is definitely more involved than other things I've made. And I know I have to refine some things still. But I am happy with this overall despite the amount of time it took to make.