Pinwheel Shirt (New Look 6961)

When I picked this fabric up from the remnants section of Fabric Depot, I loved it for my sister.  A small, busy print, with dark colors, and angular details.  I call it a pinwheel print, because that's what the circular motifs remind me of. 

And look!  Just enough fabric to make a shirt!  Like, seriously... just enough and no more.  (Reminds me of the talk about economies of scale in the comments section of the Fair Price post!)

I took New Look 6961 and traced it out in size 16, altering the neck to a V while I was at it.  There were some challenges to making it work with the fabric constraints. 

CENTER BACK CHALLENGE

The following pics show how little seam allowance I had to work with when making the Center Back seam.  In fact, the pattern called for the back to be cut on the fold, but that wasn't going to happen with my limited fabric.  Instead, I sewed the seam wrong sides together with only a millimeter of fabric on one side and a centimeter on the other.  Then I felled the longer side over to hide the un-dyed selvedge. 

One nice thing about seams on the selvedge is that the patterns often line up perfectly there.

pinning the fell

Finished seam, OUTSIDE

Finished seam, INSIDE

DETAILS

Center Back closure. I love the little red button I found! And how cool is this fabric?

This is the view of the inside back, showing the scrap of elastic I used to gather the small of the back, a detail I added, not on the pattern.

BRA STRAP CATCHERS

Because the new V-neck ended up wide, I decided this shirt needed strap-catchers.  Strap-catchers are little snaps on ribbons that go on the inside of the shirt.  When you wear the shirt, you slide the ribbon under your bra strap and snap it on the other side.  That keeps your bra straps from sliding inside the open neck-line and helps the neckline to stay put on your shoulders.  This feature is common on vintage garments, since there used to be real shame attached to the idea of visible bra straps.  Nowadays, I never see strap-catchers on garments, which is too bad, since they're useful and tidy.  Just because I'm not ashamed of my bra straps doesn't mean I want to show them! 

SERGING

Notice something neat about those inside seams?  That's right!  I've finally learned to use my serger!  I took a class taught by Helen Bartley of Seam Divas, and I learned so much!  Most importantly, I came home with the confidence to change the settings and really use my serger (as opposed to just staring at it in superstitious dread)!  This was the first garment I made where I finished the raw edges this way. 

FINISHED

Sorry for the wonky exposure.

Lastly, I made notes on the pattern, in case I make it again:

Let's see how my sister likes this shirt...