The Pumpkin Shirt

It seems like forever since I last posted.  I think I am experiencing a sewing drought because I haven't had a real desire to sew lately and when I do I seem to go down the wrong path.

McCall's has a shirt dress pattern that I have been lusting after for months now.  Patterns were finally on sale at my local fabric store so I bought it.  The pattern is a multi-size pattern so rather that cut it I traced it on my pattern paper, made my adjustments, and was ready to skip the muslin and cut my fashion fabric.

I am so glad I did not skip the muslin.  I quickly stitch the muslin and cannot for the life of me figure out where I have gone wrong.  The dress wasn't wide enough to cover my round body (about 2" short) and I have absolutely no clue where I went wrong in my adjustments.  Now I am stuck and frustrated and I don't want to sew anything else until I get beyond this dress.

Luckily I made this shirt before the drought snuck up on me.  I was a tester for the Ashley Kimono Shirt and Dress pattern and I made this shirt about a month ago.

How I Did It

I used a light weight deep rich chocolate brown corduroy.  My biggest concern was how dark the fabric is.  I love bright colors and darker colors make it a struggle for me to stay inspired but I wanted to use something in my stash.  I ended up buying a piece of similar weight corduroy to brighten the shirt up.  As usual I used my Sulky 30wt Cotton Blendable thread for accent and a splash of color.

I made a mistake right away in my cutting.  The back was supposed to be cut on the fold and somehow I missed that.  I did not have enough fabric to re-cut so I had to make it work.  It worked out really well because the back has a tuck so the seam is hidden in the tuck.

Somehow I managed to miss the "Cut on the Fold"

Right Side

Wrong Side - Seam is hidden by Tuck

Brown was too dark for me so I had to add some color.  The top has 2 collars and I chose to make one of them orange.

I also made the back yoke in the orange corduroy.  After finishing the shirt and looking at it I regretted using the orange for the back yoke.  The shirt reminds me of a pumpkin hence the "Pumpkin Shirt".  I still love the shirt and do plan to wear it.

Back Yoke

For the buttons I used a button looked like wood but they aren't.  The sleeves should have a cuff but for some reason I had difficult time understanding how to do it, so I chose to skip the cuff.

I did have to make some adjustments.  I had to shorten the sleeve and shirt by about 3 inches.

Conclusion

I really like this shirt.  My favorite thing about it is the double collar.  I also like how roomy and comfortable it is.

The shirt was pretty easy to sew except for the yoke.  I struggled getting the yokes lined up properly so.