Second Shirt Finished!

I did it!

It's finally complete!

I struggled and labored over this shirt for what seemed like forever, but I finally finished it.

The lace ruffle trim shirt:

Sorry for the awful pictures throughout this post! I was forced to take these pictures on my own as the boyfriend was still in class when I finished the shirt and I was overzealous and wanted the pictures ASAP.

I started out by printing out about 40 pages and piecing together the pattern and taping it together.

Seriously.

Printing out patterns at home sucks.

It's like adding an extra 10 tedious steps to the process and putting together a puzzle all in one.

Finally, I was able to cut out the fabric - also a nightmare, as it was jersey knit.

Then, sewing.

My construction, at least on the left side, was pretty good.

I had to do a gathering stitch to make the ruffle and then use every bit of brainpower to figure out how to lay the lace, ruffle, and front together in order to sew all three pieces at once and have it turn out right.

I ended up doing that seam several times in order to get the ruffle looking right.

One of my seam attempts ended horribly because I sewed too far into the ruffle and it was a short, dinky, crooked looking sad thing.

That mistake left me sitting on the couch watching movies and slowly ripping out the seam. For days.

Awful.

Finally, I got the wretched seam out and got to sew it up properly.

Then I attached the back, sewed on the sleeves, and did the crap-ton of required hemming.

The right side suffered a little mishap when I was attempting to sew on the sleeve.

Thankfully, it doesn't show too much when you're wearing it, because there are only so many seams I am willing to rip out.

After I finished the shirt, and realized how baggy it was even though I used to the extra-small pattern, I took in the sides.

While trimming the excess on the inside, I accidentally cut a hole into the front of the shirt.

Guess that bagginess was a blessing in disguise, because I actually had enough excess fabric to take it in further to get rid of the hole.

I swear the hole is there! It was impossible to take a proper picture of.

Finally, after all the mistakes and mishaps, the shirt was finished.

For some reason, it seems like all of my sewing projects involve long, dramatic hurdles and embarrassing mistakes. Hopefully I'll cut that shit out soon and learn how to sew a garment without all the drama.

Until next time...




Keep crafting,

Gabriella