baby got shirt!

all finished. i brought the side seams in... oh, a few inches. look, i have a waist, and i like other people to know it's there also, okay? that little rumple up near my right shoulder is not poor stitching, i just didn't pull the shirt on properly. it actually doesn't sit like that normally. apparently my sewing skills actually surpass my ability to dress myself. given how long i've been sewing, and given how long i've dressed myself this is cause for some concern.

best bit? the fabulous use of the embroidery stitches on my machine. normally hidden by the pocket flap, so only i know they're there:


worst bit? i was hammering the cool copper-coloured studs in (yup! no wussy buttons here. studs come with these angry looking spiky prongs and you need to hammer them in), and i was telling Badly Coloured Boy a terribly interesting story about the IRA. I looked up at him to emphasise the climax, and slammed the hammer down onto my thumb.
bruises are notoriously difficult to photograph (trust me - my hypochondriac self has tried. So. Many. Times), but you can make out the ugly blacky-purple smush on the edge of my thumbnail, i hope.

my howls of anguish rather detracted from the end of the IRA story, by the way.

reasons why i rule

i have pretty much sewn a shirt that pretty much fits. still have to do the cuffs and the side and arm seams. and the buttons. but, y'know. i made collar! there is no need for you to see the World's Ugliest Collar Stand Facing Job. some scissors and some yanking and noone need be any the wiser...

sew u think you can make a shirt, huh?

i'm thinking i should have signed up for the wardrobe refashion challenge, given that i keep making tops and dresses and my poor student status means i probably won't buy any pants (which i don't intend to make myself yet) this year. or at least for the first half of the year.

i've been trying the shirt out of Sew U. Frustratingly, while her patterns are 'for sizes 2 - 18' there are actually only 4 sizes to cut - extra-small, small, medium and large. And she doesn't state what measurements any of those are exactly. apparently a medium is somewhere between a 34.5" and 35.5" bust (also note the non-standard measurements she uses?). so i'm stuck making a mystery-sized shirt for my 34" bust. which is a pity, because it's a very flattering pattern so far (that or i made the darts a wee bit big, resulting in a more fitted than intended shirt).
anyway, i'm stuck right now because i sewed a pocket on a bit crooked, and the facing isn't as straight as i'd like, but i don't actually own an unpicker... so no sewing till i can beg/ borrow/ steal (tried to buy - spotlight didn't have any left) one.

because i'm making the cowboy shirt i need to cut the little pointy yokes. and because i'm using plaid, i need to make sure all the stripes are doing the same thing. and because geometric mathsy stuff was never my strong point, and i have a bit of a cold which contributes to Stuffiness of Brain i actually had to cut seven yokes, instead of two, to get them pointing the right way. it's not helped by the fact the plaid is different on the vertical to the horizontal. it's helped greatly by the fact my fabric is completely reversible.