Some time ago I purchased two Very Easy Vogue shirt patterns but only recently decided to have a go at one of them. I have to say shirts scare me more than trousers. I think it's all the buttons!The decision to make it now came after one of my attempts at organising my fabric scrap stash. I found some green cotton remnants too narrow to do anything big. I thought I would check pattern pieces size for the shirts and voila, it fitted perfectly well.
Initially I wanted to do view B as I love the puff sleeves but my fabric didn't stretch that much and I went for View A, the sleeveless one. I treated it as a muslin/ toile that if good enough I could wear. If not I would probably learn something new. I think I managed both things.
After all cutting and marking I realised that this pattern asks for loops instead of buttonholes. I know I said I'm a bit afraid of the latter but that's exactly why I started the shirt. I decided to try to insert buttonholes instead. When it came to stitching front facings I hit a wall. I couldn't understand how the instructions where asking for front facings when there were no facings pattern pieces! After asking here and there, lovely folk at The Sewing Forum noted that the front piece acts as facing and I should have cut 4 pieces. How embarrassing it that! As I had run out of green I had to improvise with other fabric and went for a red (which you can see peeking out in that first shirt photo). After all this I became a bit careless and the buttons are not perfect. I finished with a narrow hem (with a narrow hem foot I got recently) and boy do I need practice!
I will probably wear this shirt as it is wearable but already plan on try again, this time with Vogue 8557.
How about you? Do you have experience sewing shirts? Have you ever tried? Any tips?
