Valentine's Day Special: Colorblock Western Shirt with Owls

Remember last year when I made this for my baby?

My friend, Tina, recently gave me a bunch of fabric and notions, so I was going through my current inventory to make room, when I came across this little gem in my pattern repertoire. I had forgotten that I've been wanting to make my husband a western shirt for ages. He likes that retro look, so this shirt was a perfect choice for him. I know it's like. . .two weeks early from Valentine's Day, but. . .I wanted to make sure that I got it done during a time when I wasn't busy, and. . .this gives him time to get me a good present. (Mmmmuhahahaha...)

Here it is! I'm not blogging the process because. . .it's just a pattern, and that's boring. Plus, the whole shirt took me about 12 hours from start to finish and this blog would be a book. I will, however, go over some details. First off, see how the plaids on either side of the buttons match up? Also, my husband is super skinny and tall. (He is so tall and skinny that the daughter of some friends of ours calls him "Tree.") Anyways, he can never find shirts with sleeves that are long enough, because apparently skinny means that you have short arms in the fashion industry, so that was something I considered when cutting out the patterns.

I found the owls on www.embroiderydesigns.com. My husband also loves owls, but as he is a man, I needed to find an owl that wasn't obnoxious and girly.

Most embroidery machines have the capability of flipping the design.

This butterfly collar is for REAL, y'all. I was able to use the last piece of iron-on interfacing that I had for this collar, but when it came to reinforcing the button strip and the cuffs, I ended up just using an extra piece of fabric inside. (By the way, if a pattern calls for iron-on interfacing and you don't feel like running to the store, you can always just use a piece of slightly stiffer fabric. Just make sure you pin it well [or stay-stitch, which I never do because it's a waste of time] before sewing so it doesn't move around. That's the advantage of iron-on.)

I made sure that all the buttons were sewn on with the crown design at the top.

In retrospect, I should have made the button holes vertical instead of horizontal, but they still do their job. I love my Husqvarna machine. It does perfect button holes. (Blogger won't let me center this picture, that's why it's off to the side.)

For some reason, Blogger won't let me type above this picture, so. . .Anyways, here's the cuff! Isn't it great?! 

I learned a new seaming technique: flat fell. The pattern called for it along the shoulder to armpit seam. It's a little crooked because I had to top stitch it from the inside. It bothers me, but not enough to take it out.

This is what a flat felled seam looks like on the inside. It's nice and clean. You are supposed to do this technique on seams that see a lot of wear. In fact, the inside seams of jeans have this stitch.

Here is the inside of the shirt.

This is the seam along the sides of the shirt. It was supposed to be flat felled too, but I got lazy and just did my "surger" stitch that I typically do on jersey. Actually, I didn't want to have top stitching down the sides. I felt like that would be overkill.

The back.

I wish I would have had those pearl button snaps that you find on most western shirts, but I didn't. Anyways, I tried to nod to them at least by putting a smaller button at the collar.

The End!

Refashioning: Fashion Forward Korean Style 2fer Shirt

Several years ago, back in my South Korea days, I bought this awesome shirt in the subway.

I love how it melds the collared shirt with the off-shoulder jersey look. It's like party meets business in a really really unique and cool way.

A little detail. I like that the business shirt is only attached to the jersey by the sleeves and the armpit/shoulder hem. That way it can move more naturally, unlike those hideous V-neck sweaters that have a collared shirt collar sewn in at the neck, cuffs at wrists, and tails at bottom hem. Those shirts always look fake and horrible. I will say...with that elastic at the bottom, this shirt is no joke. Like...it begs real dedication because it's not easy getting in and out.

Here is a western-style shirt that my mother-in-law gave me recently. I really like the hexagonal red pearl buttons, growth stripes, and the back yoke. I wanted to turn this shirt into a shirt like the one above.

First I folded the western shirt in half and the Korean shirt in half on top of it and folded the sleeves of the Korean shirt in so I could cut around the bodice of the western shirt, using the Korean shirt as a guide.

Then, I did the same thing with the sleeves.

Next, I did the same thing with some red jersey.

. . .And the sleeves.

[Picture missing] The first thing I did sewing-wise was to sew the top and bottom seams of the jersey sleeves. I took a picture, but it didn't transfer, so you will just have to take my word for it.

Next, I sewed the neckline of the red jersey on the front and back of the bodice. (The hem in question is to the left in this picture.)

Next (and after the next two or three steps, I realized I should have done this part after them in sequence, but oh well), I pinned all the pieces together and sewed the sleeves onto the bodice.

Then I sewed down the side seams of the bodice of the western shirt.

Then I sewed down the sleeves.

Then, I sewed down the bodice of the jersey. (After this is where I should have attached the sleeves, because I ended up having to take out some of the seam in order to sew the bodices and down the sleeves...Anyways, if you were wanting to do this, I would advice doing them in the suggested order and not the order I did it. Otherwise, forget I said anything!)

Then I stuffed the jersey up into  the collar so I could quickly sew around the bottom edge of the collared shirt. Typically, I would have folded this edge under instead of sewing it, but this was easier, and since you will never see it, it doesn't matter how it looks.

Then, I folded the bottom edge up about 3/4 of an inch and added elastic through the waistband I'd created. You might notice that I kept the shirt open instead of sewing the bottom hem closed. This is to help getting in and out.

The last step was to hem the jersey and I was done! It took about 3 and a half hours total.

The back is my favorite part.

The End!