Thursday, February 18, 2010

Plaid in Progress

So far, I'm really pleased with how McCall 5522 is turning out.

Like a few others who made this shirt, I've rearranged the order of construction to suit my own methods. Instead of sewing upper bodices together at shoulders and sides, then sewing lower bodices together, then sewing upper to lower, I sewed upper to lower on fronts and back, then sewed the shoulder seams.

At that point, I could pin the sides and see how the fit was going, but I still didn't sew the side seams until I added the ruffle and the front bands - which is now done.

I had a suggestion from Nancy K to do the front band on the bias, and I thought I had enough fabric left to do that, but I didn't. So I did the next best thing, which was to rearrange the front bands so that they line up perfectly on the lower part of the shirt, and where they don't line up, it isn't as noticeable because the ruffle is on either side.

I'm liking it.

I'm doing it my way on the sleeves, as well. When I cut the sleeves, I removed some of the extra ease in the sleeve cap. There was a lot. After thinking about it a little, I decided that rather than easing in the rest of the excess, I would treat this as a man's shirt. Men's shirts have no sleeve cap ease. You sew them in completely flat, and if there's a plaid - guess what? it lines up!

Excess fabric - gone. I did it sort of quick-and-dirty instead of doing it properly. If this way hadn't worked, I would tried another way, but this worked. I started pinning the sleeves in - flat, remember - from each end. I pinned until I got to the ease marks. I put a pin at the shoulder seam mark. Then, I looked at how much excess there was, and where, and I started fiddling.

After only minimal muttering and swearing, I got the sleeves to where they are now. They don't line up perfectly, and I'll continue to tinker with that, but they're much better than any attempt at plaid-matching I could have achieved after easing in 2 extra inches of fabric.

I pinned the sleeves from the cuff all the way up, and then back down the shirt to the hem. Just like a man's shirt. And it worked.

Best of all, IT FIT. But Project Runway will be on shortly, so it's time to stop for the night.

14 comments:

KID, MD said...

This is so cute!! I love it in orange plaid! Must haul out this pattern and make it up soon.

Faye Lewis said...

I like your plaid shirt too. I'm working on a blouse pattern now too. I made a muslin first and didn't like it that there was so much ease to deal with when putting in the sleeves ended up with puckering. So I took some of it out. Hopefully this will make for a better sleeve - like yours, in my end results.

Anonymous said...

I love it!!! Especially the ruffles.

BConky said...

It's looking so cute. Can't wait to see the finished shirt.

Nancy K said...

I do like it better with the band matched, and you're right, it doesn't matter when the ruffle is next to it. So what did you do with the extra ease? BTW, one of the reasons I prefer Burda is that they rarely have too much ease in a sleeve cap and 2" is a whole lot of ease, especially in a shirting fabric! I try and remember to measure the armscye and the sleeve cap on the pattern so that I don't have too much ease. I'd like to know why the big 4 does this. You'd never find it in rtw.
Oh, I really like the shirt.

Karin van Dam said...

That's a great shirt. I'm not really into plaid shirts normally, but I have to say this orange plaid with the ruffles looks really nice. So, project runway started again? Can't wait for it to air here again too!

Elizabeth said...

I'm lovin' it!

Vicki said...

It is looking good :)

Little Hunting Creek said...

I love this shirt! It is so cheerful and happy and non-wintery

Virginia at A Sewing Life said...

Looking forward to seeing the plaid shirt on you. It is very very cute. I agree that the placket looks nicer now that you've matched it down lower.

Gretchen the Household Deity said...

I totally draw the line at matching plaids on the sleeves. Hats off to you!

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

This is looking really good!

Michelle said...

Very pretty!! I just finished a plaid shirt myself, I love the color!

Anonymous said...

cutest shirt ever!!! Love the pattern.