I’m starting a full time position this semester and I’m going to have to get serious about my work appropriate wardrobe. First step is to make a bunch of great button-down shirts. Luckily I’m able to wear jeans to work, so a classy shirt with jeans is going to be a great go-to outfit.
Details
- Pattern: McCall’s Pattern m6649
- Fabric: Cotton & Steel
- Size: 16
- Modifications: 1/2″ forward shoulder adjustment, moved the bust point, removed 1/2″ along the crook of the front armscye
Something that’s hard to understand with fit is that sometimes you have to remove fabric in order to make something “tight” fit looser. I’ve used this pattern a number of times in the past to make shirts, but anytime I made this shirt in quilt cotton, the top button of my shirt would pull really badly. I know a lot of people confuse this with needing to do a full bust adjustment, but it wasn’t my second button that was pulling, only my top button. My initial instinct was to add fabric to the armscye to give me more room, but that is actually the opposite of what I needed to do. I watched the following youtube video and measured across my upper chest and compared to the pattern. I realized that there was WAY too much fabric and I needed to actually scoop out or remove fabric from the curve of the armscye.
I’m sure I could probably tighten up the shirt a little more, but any tighter and I would definitely lose range of motion. The shirt is just loose enough that I don’t have to worry about the gaping button problem that plagues so many women.
Isn’t this the best fabric? I love the neutral grey color with fluorescent pink dots!
HandmadePhD 
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