Collars are so tricky. Another thing you can do is, if you stay-stitch around the shirt’s neckline, you can clip those curves to the stay-stitching and it will lay flatter.
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Normally that’s what I would do, but I didn’t listen to myself and followed what the guy in the vid did, heh. I’d say “now I know”, but that’s a lie. I haven’t done it enough for it to be stored in accessable memory.
Ok, the first part of the collar looks quite decent.
Now here’s to hoping the next part goes well. This is where my ham will be first used…Man, I could use a ham, 
.
And the other side is done. Unfortunately, there is a little bunching up, but nowhere near as bad as I had with the first part.
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WOOOOHOOOOOO!
Can’t say thank you enough to ya’ll that helped me.
now, there is a wee bit of bunching on the sleeves, but just a tiny bit. Pshew!
Now for the buttons and button holes.
Again, WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!
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It is just the cutest shirt! The black collar really is nice!
Have you thought about using snaps instead of buttons? You can leave off the buttonholes but put buttons on the placket for looks. I do that a lot now since I hate making buttonholes for kids clothing!
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Hmm! Never thought of it…which is weird considering a lot of my clothes back in the 80’s had snaps.
Don’t have any on hand at the moment, and I just measured for the buttons so I’ll stick with that for now, but I’ll definitely put that on the burner. I have quite a few younger nephews and nieces, so will give me a chance to make several over next year and hopefully…
hopefully I’ll be able to remember how to do this with less effort.
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It looks fantastic! I agree that the black collar looks sharp.
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That looks so cute. Well done with persevering, pretty sure if it was me it would be in the UFO pile!!
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It almost went there, heh.
And it’s done. Fini! Ulsgwadv! Ilajes sba!
Definitely want to look into snaps for other kids shirts. The sewing machine I have is not great for buttons. I have to manually move it, too fast, not enough thread. Too slow, and a wad of thread is made.
Also, button holes need to be about twice the size of the button. Hoo, That’s a tight fit.
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Making a large shirt
Ok! I’ll add what I’m doing for my shirt here, too.
(Mental note to self: I still need to clean this whole thing up, yeesh!).
Ok! Since my shirt is going to be fairly larger, there will be quite a few more complexities. (The biggest being, “do I have enough fabric”, heh.).
First thing is, I’m only making a few marks. That way I can dry-run the arrangement of how I’m going to cut it out. (This is to see just how much of the fabric I can align from one piece to another. Arms, back, collar, and plackets aren’t necessary. Only the fronts and pocket need to be aligned).
It looks like I’ll be able to get both fronts side by side, and a pocket out of the middle section just like with the childrens shirt. Maybe two pockets, as I’m really leaning for two instead of one.
Marking the left/right position of the left front piece
And I’m using the seam gauge to make sure the straight edges align with the dinos (here, I’m using a foot of the sauropod).
When I align the other front, I’ll use the gauge to mark out where the seam allowance will be in relation to this front. It’s 5/8ths, which means that from the foot of the sauropod, I will need to subtract the previous amount from twice the seam allowance. (Hmm! It’s 4 mm and doesn’t have a clean imperial representation. So I’ll need to make sure I add 4 mm to the 1+1/4 inch [both seam allowances]).
Marking the up/down position of the shirt fronts
Here, I am using the top jaw of the spinosaur to ensure both fronts will be at the same up/down position of the fabric. (In the left image you can see the temporary chalk marking I made to reference where the bottom and center of this left front part of the shirt is going).
Marking for the pocket[s]
I was planning on two pockets, but it seems the dinos/fabric does some weird things. I could align three of the tan Dromaeosaurs, but I just can’t get the fourth to align. Which is really odd, 
. Eh, just means I’ll stick with one pocket. Oh well, heh.
Lengthening the shirt
I had mentioned, somewhere around-abouts, how I didn’t like how short this pattern was, so I added 1+1/2 inches to the shirt.
How I did this: There’s only five pieces that are needing lengthened (six counting the button part which will need some minor adjustments from the regular pattern). Then, I marked the bottom of the pattern, then using the seam gauge, I marked as many dots as I could muster along that drawn edge, and merely connected the dots as best as possible.
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Let your OCD free: Best method for aligning everything
Ok! I found out how to be extremely precise…However, I’d need a bigger piece of sheetrock, heh! (So I won’t be doing this).
Here, since I am using a piece of sheetrock for the table top, I used needles to mark the tops of the sauropods, and adjusted the fabric (up/down) until everything lined up. Then I did the same thing to the dromaeosaurs and adjusted the fabric (left/right).
Now granted, this isn’t the only areas that would need adjusting (fabric does stretch), but it is a basis to start from.
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Cutting out the back
Since cutting matts are not long enough to mark large patterns on, I first marked it on the table, then slide the cutting matt under the fabric.
Now, the back piece adds a little more difficulty in that you need to fold the fabric in half, and iron the crease flat. Which the heat from the iron can warp a cutting matt. Plus, sliding a matt under the fabric can cause the two sides to come out of alignment.
To deal with that, I used a sharpie to mark the edges of the fabric to make sure it doesn’t come out of alignment. (The likely hood the markings will show through the fabric if I happen to use those areas is very small).
Interfacing for the plackets
One thing that has come to my attention, the interfacing I used on the previous shirt, or I failed sewing the placket onto the shirt, but either way, the plackets crease over quite a bit.
So what I’ll do, as an experiment and the only thing I can reliably do, is use another interfacing I got. This one doesn’t require steam, and is a bit stiffer than the other interfacing. Maybe, just maybe it’ll keep the plackets from folding over so readily.
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Marking out the collar:
First things first, will it fit the width of the interface (so not to leave behind so many scraps)?
Just perfect. 
(Funnily enough, having a seam gauge really has been a lot more helpful in positioning a lot of things…especially for my dizzy spells, and how bad my eyes have gotten).
I mark out the 5/8th’s seam allowance on the back side and adjust accordingly.
Then realize as you’re writing things down that you did this part wrong, and you look dumbfounded because you can’t find your seam gauge that’s laying under your clear ruler. 
. Had I left this mistake be, I would have changed the seam allowance from 5/8th’s on the ends to 7/8th’s.
So before the next step, I need to ensure the tip of the collar goes to the correct position. Also, I mark dashes on the collar pattern totalling both seam allowances (top and bottom) on only the bottom of the collar. (I straightened this collar out from the original pattern. So it’s easier to align things up).
Next I need to clean off my work area.
Here I am matching up the bottom line to the dashes to draw the top line.
And then I realize I still don’t like the collar design and I adjust accordingly to give the pointy bits more of a fluted shape. (This is before I realized my mistake above. But it’s only moved back by a quarter, so doesn’t detract from the info. Also, it’s a good way to show just how much would have changed if I didn’t catch it).
Now, there’s two things to note about the changes, and doing it this way.
- I will be using the interface as the guide for when I sew the collar together. So this shaping is more important than the cut out collar itself.
- Since the collar pattern accomodates a 5/8ths inch seam allowance, as long as my modifications leave roughly 1/2 inch seam allowance, I’ll still be able to work with the pattern with no difficulty.
Changes and Thoughts to the Finished Shirt
I decided to forgo the decorative V’s on the seams, and meh, I’m fine with this.
I accidentally cut too much fabric off to make the front facing square, so I snipped both and, well, I kind of like the rounded corners. (
I’m not really sure how I messed up the stitching on the left side…O_o, oh well).
Plus, it looks like I am getting more comfortable (even though I’m still highly error prone). I didn’t follow the instructions for aligning the pieces, but about three to four videos for the plackets and collar, and I didn’t do that bad at all. (Though, I still should sew the top parts of the placket, but meh, it’s fine as is, too).
My thoughts
- The extra length I added is perfect.
- I definitely don’t want to use this thick interfacing for the plackets. It’s way too rigid, and annoying around the neck. The collar is fine, though. (Though, this design is way too small, so back to the drawing board).
- REMEMBER TO CHECK BOBBIN. Holy moly that’s annoying,
- Sewing two lines offers two different uses. 1: One line will hold the folds in place while I can plan out how to sew the second sewed line. 2: It is rather nice as a decoration.
- I’m still pretty bad at straight lines. Luckily it doesn’t bother me.
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I’m so impressed you made a shirt! Sewing clothes feels so far beyond my skill set, I’m always extra amazed by anyone who can do it. Especially since you just started sewing!
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