fall sewing:: shirts

I'm having a hard time making shirts for the Fall that are long sleeved. It's just so hot here right now! (and will be hot for another month or so). I figure that anything I make can be worn on top of a long sleeved t-shirt, so it still counts as part of my "Fall Sewing" series.

As you can see, Anna is very serious about her role as "model". This shirt is my favorite. It is also some little elf's favorite too as I CANNOT FIND IT anywhere! I have searched high and low and it is no where to be found. I even remember where I last saw it -in my front room on a hanger. Oh well. . . as it turns out, I have 5 more yards of the apple and pear fabric so I guess I could make another one. You can find the pattern here if you're interested. They also have it in size 8-14 too. This will be cute with a long sleeved T underneath I think. And made longer into a dress.
When I was first trying this on Anna she told me, "It's kinda ugly" so I let her pick out a fabric to do the ruffle and the binding at the neck in. I also had to tell her how cool it would be to match Aunt Jenni because she has a skirt made out of the same fabric. I think she's convinced. Well. She wore it today and didn't cry, so I'll count go ahead and count that as okay. I have to admit that I'm not totally crazy about it either though. It's OK. I really like the pleats in the neck though and I think it would be a cute dress. And I wouldn't add the ruffle. Or lengthen the arms. I should just stick to the pattern. . .


This shirt is made from the same pattern as her birthday dress. There was all sorts of learning that happened here! I tried my hand at shirring. There are loads of tutorials online if you're interested. It's very very easy. You should give it a try. I shirred the front and also the arms to give it a little wavy ruffle. I also hand sewed the facing to the inside because sewing it (like in the instructions) didn't look nice on the corduroy fabric. The neck on this one is a little wide, but I think it will be cute with a long sleeved mock turtle neck underneath.

BTW - Anna does NOT like this one either. She wanted a flower instead of a whale. I told her that the blue is like the ocean and the whale is swimming in it. She doesn't care. Isn't she sweet?
Since she doesn't like anything I make for her, I let her choose the fabric. I gave her 3 different choices of combos here (otherwise we'd have apple flannel paired with rainbow whale flannel). I thought it turned out cute - and she likes it too. You can find the pattern here. The nice thing is that it goes up to size 8 and also has a short sleeved version. There are lots of options to make the same shirt but a few different ways. I shirred the arms to give them a bell-like look. I really want to buy this hat pattern designed by the same people, but I can predict that Anna will definitely refuse to wear it!

Fun stuff. Anna really is a good sport about it all. I am learning a lot, and my real goal is to learn and make mistakes on her clothes so that by the time she refuses to wear anything I make her I'll be good enough to make more of my own clothes.