bamboo shirt

so as mentioned in my last post I purchased a few new patterns. one of which was simplicity #1692.

so I got right down to it with a bamboo print polyester I had in my stash. its a light weight soft knit with little stretch, which is not in the fabric recommendations for this pattern but I thought would look nice anyway. the pattern calls for a side zipper but I figured with the stretch in the fabric I really didn’t need one and I was right. which made the whole thing go together a lot quicker. I originally put it together exactly as the pattern indicated (minus the zipper of course.) but realized because of the type of fabric I used the neck facing needed to be cut down. especially around the sleeves. the pattern had the facing going a good three inches past the placket and was squared off on the ends. which made the sleeve hang wonky. again I think this is just from the fabric I used. a cotton probably wouldn’t do that. I went ahead and cut the facing down to about an inch away from the end of the placket and rounded it up nicely since the square points stuck out funny.

you can't really see it in the photo but it stuck out really bad.
the other issue I had with the pattern which essentially changed the entire look of the shirt was its length. okay so this was my own stupidity I should have checked length before cutting the pattern. I knew I wanted to be able to wear the shirt with my modern jeans and that this was a vintage reproduction, that should have cued me in to the fact it would be shorter then I wanted. but I didn’t even give it a thought till it was finished. it hung only about a half an inch below the top of my waist band. which would be fine if I stood still and never moved. but yeah that’s not going to happen. plus I wanted to be able to wear it to work, where I definitely wouldn’t want it riding up. since I had a bit of left over fabric, I decided to add a band to the bottom. which I think actually gives it a slightly more finished look then the original hem I had in it. the buttons were also from my stash. as I was putting the shirt together I was thinking how nice red buttons would look on this shirt, but then I couldn’t find six matching red buttons in the right size, and didn’t want to buy any, so I went through the brown ones and really I love the ones I chose. the color is just perfect and once I held them up to the fabric I liked them better then I would have the red, so yea for not having the red.

I want to make this pattern again using view D and A, also using one of the recommended fabric types and lengthening it before I cut. I wonder if I can get away with not putting a zipper in it without stretch, or if I will not be so lucky next time. its not that I can’t do zippers. I put them in things all the time its just so much easier and more comfortable to wear something without a zipper.