Completed: Poly Paisley Button Up

Otherwise known as slippery shirt of fraytasticness.  I know, I'm still workin' on the last part.  This is the same pattern I've been working with, I'm going to start calling it "My Express Button Up Shirt pattern."  It's kiiind of a mouthful, but it sounds like it's super speedy to sew (which it's not really, but there's always hope right?)

I'm really looking far too pleased with myself here

The fabric is some ridiculously slippery poly shit that I knew I was going to hate but it's paaaaisleeeey!  So home with me it came.  I must make a full disclosure right now, I don't usually buy fabrics from Joann's because there are some local fabric shops around that I'd rather give my money to.  You know, the kind that let's their employees wear clothes them made instead of some generic uniform and where the staff actually KNOW HOW TO SEW????  Sorry, rant over.  But beyond all the economic arguments, I'm really just usually disappointed in the comparative fabric quality.  That's why it's cheaper, it's not the same stuff.

I mentioned in my last post it's just not short sleeve weather yet

Unfortunately, when I was cutting out I came just short of having enough fabric.  There wasn't enough left to cut the collar.  THE COLLAR!!!!  The single smallest piece of the pattern.  No matter how I turned the scraps, though, I just couldn't fit the four collar pieces on any of them.  And this is not the kind of fabric I'm super comfortable with piecing together (because, again, soooooo slippery).  After a great amount of hemming and hawing I eventually cut the collar piece out of one of the sleeve pieces.  Since this is polyester and warm weather is coming, it's really probably a blessing in disguise.  Maybe.

I have made one very important discovery about button up shirts.  They really need a lot of buttons.  More than I've been using.  Too few buttons = weird gaping.  I actually had to sew a hook and eye at the full bust point on this shirt because I epically failed to get the button situated at the right spot.  Why is that so hard?  It seriously looks like magic though.  What keeps it closed right there?? 

The one major problem that arose with making this shirt sleeveless: I knew there was some excess fabric along the front armhole in my original version, and I tried to remove it, but I came nowhere near taking enough out.  I ended up having to take huge (1.5 inch, so 3 inches removed in total) darts.  And since the front is pieced the way it is, it just looks weird.  There was just no way to make it look ok.  Fortunately this busy-ass fabric totally camouflages pretty much everything.  I think the armhole looks fine from most angles, but yeah, it's shaped kinda weird. Le sigh.

I'm wearing it here tucked into my grey Hollyburn skirt.  I need like a million more of these ASAP, but I don't think I have any suitable fabric on hand.  I'm trying to shop the stash this year, but I keep wanting to make things that I don't have fabric for (Duathlon Shorts, I'm looking at you!).  I just need to sew faster, maybe.  By the way, I know that's a weird derpy face, but I'm pretty sure I'm talking to the dog here.  

In retrospect I think the collar needs some topstitching to stay together.  It's weirdly puffy in a way that interfacing is not helping.  Boo.  Or maybe a nehru collar would've been the way to go?  Speaking of retro.  I'm not sure if it's really bad enough to actually get done though.  It's wearable as is, so I probably won't bother.  There are so many new things to be sewn!

Here it is untucked.  (By the way, this fabric is so shiny it kind of amazes me that it's even fabric as opposed to some kind of metal?)  I've worn it several times now to work and I always tuck it in.  I don't think that the cut of the shirt works with leaving it untucked.  The original shirt was not like this, so I've definitely done fudged it up somewhere.  I need to take width out of the waist/hips and lessen the back curvature (that shit's like impossible to hem as is anyway.  And I thought circle skirts were bad.)

The back cure is pretty low. I'm not sure if I need to bring it up or bring the front down a little.  Maybe a bit of both.  I do like the way it looks here, though, just not so much from the side.  It looks super sloppy.  It does stay tucked in pretty well when I bend down, though, and I assume that's the point.  There's some excess back fabric, but I don't think I'd be able to put my arms in front of me if I took any out, so there it shall stay.

There's that awful side view!  Ugh.  And that's why it's a tuck in shirt.  It's pretty loose through the waist and hips, but that makes it kind of poof out when it's tucked in (which I'm pretty sure is standard?) so I'm not sure how much I should/can take out.  It just needs a little more experimenting.  

I'm getting close with this pattern.  I love that it's just the right style and the fit was already pretty close.  Those are the perks of rubbing off your favorite clothes.  I know that every time I buy a pattern it's the same struggle to get the fit just perfect, so I don't feel discouraged by the imperfect fit.  As a matter of fact, I just want to make about ten more of these right now, all with little variances (sleeve style/length, ease, etc.).  As a matter of fact, I've already got one more to show you and it's my absolute faaavorite button up shirt ever!  Now I just need to get pictures.

And in case you wonder what I'd look like as a farmer, this is pretty much it.

My dad took these pictures and he has a strange sense of humor.

I'm curious, where do you stand on buying vs. making your own patterns?  Do you always go one way or the other?