First proper shirt!

You don't even know how excited I am about this make! Do you have a "dream wardrobe" that consists of all the things that you would love to wear that you can't in real life for more or less valid reasons? For example, I love high necklines. Do I wear them? No, they make me look extremely top-heavy and they don't do any favours to me and my figure. Another "dream"piece of clothing were shirts. Not being a cup A or B I could never find a shirt that would fit me well. There would be gaping between the buttonholes, pulling lines everywhere or they would look like a sack with buttons on. I almost gave up hope...

...and then I started sewing. Sewing makes everything better! Up until now shirts scared me though - collars, collar stands, cuffs... I made a simple shirt once before and the collar got me completely lost and it looked ... well, not very good. This time I had proper instructions and it went so easily that I wondered if I missed out on some parts or steps!

Anyway, lets get to sewing notes. The pattern is Sewaholic Granville. Since it's designed for pear-shaped woman I had to do some alterations. I did my first proper FBA! The shirt is size 12 with 5 cm FBA done following this awesome tutorial. The only other change I made to the pattern before cutting it was shortening the sleeve. The fabric used is poplin in pretty aqua (?) colour. It was really cheap buy and I figured that if it works I'd wear it, if it doesn't that I'd only invest $5 and my time...

I think it worked well. Instructions were great - I usually sew with Burda where the collar instructions are likely to be "sew in the collar" ;) I got a bit lost with plackets but then I found this and 5 min later I was done. I love the burrito yoke method in the pattern! Almost all the seams are flat-felled. The sleeve and the armhole seams are just zig-zaged as I didn't know how to deal with them. My sewing machine had no problems with 7 buttonholes but it screwed up the eighth one! This always happens to me. Buttons are recycled from some old top and I absolutely love them.

Geez, I really should have iron the clothes before taking photos!!! Sorry for that!

Now I get why people say that shirt making is incredibly satisfying. All that topstitching <3 It was probably most technical piece of clothing I ever made and I learnt a lot. But shirt is not perfect. Collar top-stitching could be better. After a day of wearing it at work I also realized that my shirt is a bit small. There is a tiny bit of gaping, partially because of buttons position. I decided to size up for the next Granville that you will see pretty soon. And again...and again... I think I'm going to have a problem. At the moment I have 5 pieces of fabric that are destined to become Granville shirts!

I might be obsessed ;)