Hi hi hi! I did not mean to take such an extended break from writing about sewing but the start of the year around here was not great and I didn’t have much desire to sew. I have a few things to write about and share; today I’ve got another short sleeved shirt on deck!
👻 What’s Up With That Fabric?
I love an interesting, secondhand fabric–the weirder the better. Back in September 2025 I yet again volunteered at the Textile Center’s garage sale and one of the fabrics I got was this cartoon athletic ghosts fabric, 1at least that’s what I’m calling it. I tried doing a reverse Google image search on it but I didn’t have any fruitful results. It seems like it’s from the late 1990’s or early 2000’s. I’m guessing it’s a cotton, though it may be a cotton/poly blend. It’s not the softest but it was just the right amount of ridiculous for me so I bought it! I had about 1.5 yards to work with.
The Path of Least Resistance: Using A TNT Pattern
When my desire to sew something up finally came back online I thought a good way to ease back in would be to make a shirt using a pattern I’ve already sewn up before. I didn’t have to print or trace any patterns, hallelujah! Last year I made this Bellbird Button Up in a striped shot cotton. Out of all my shirts (made by me and ready to wear) it was by and large my most worn shirt in the spring, summer and fall! I still love it despite some flaws and can’t wait to wear it more now as the weather warms.
Always Learning
Even though I’ve made this shirt before I still learned more in the process. Here are some take aways from this shirt’s iteration (aka notes for my future makes!):
- You don’t need to interface both collar pieces and both collar stand pieces (the instructions on this pattern make it seem like you should do this, but it is unnecessary). I looked at other pattern instructions for button ups I have and all the ones I consulted have you interface just one piece of each.
- I think you should prepress your sleeve hems before sewing the sleeve into the bodice at step 14! It’ll make it easier when you get to step 18.
- I had to seam rip the serged hem on both the sleeves 😦 I did a bad job and got a fold. Go slow!
- I am still really confused with the collar/button extension instructions! I did a bad job getting the collar stand to line up with the button placket again. I am a beginner at this, but I don’t think the illustrations for this step are really all that great either.
- I still had an issue making the top buttonhole on the placket using my buttonhole foot. I have left that mess for now!
- I did successfully make a buttonhole on the collar stand for the first time, yay!
- I still haven’t decided on whether to add the pocket! Left it off for now.
Project Breakdown
Here’s my lazy assessment on how much the materials cost me:
- Fabric: $3 (such a rough guestimate; you buy by the grocery bag)
- Pattern: Already in my stash. But let’s say $3.08 since I originally paid $6.16 for it
- Buttons: From the stash! I think they too came from the garage sale. .50 cents?
- Thread: Black cotton Gutermann from my stash
Total: $6.58 ish? I didn’t buy new thread, needles, or interfacing and the amount used is small.
Wow, Are You Done Yappin’?
Yeah let’s wrap this baby up! Overall I’m happy with this make. As always, it feels SO GOOD to finish something. I started this shirt on February 26th, 2026 and finished on March 5th, 2026 (I think!). Time will tell how much wear I’ll get out of it, but likely not as much as my first Bellbird as the print isn’t exactly a versatile one 😂 I finally wore this one out of the house on our first hot day of 2026, Saturday March 21st (and to showcase the true lion and lamb of this month, I XC skied on the streets to my friend’s house just 6 days prior). My new shirt was great for biking and a playground hang. Front porch selfie below 🙂
As always, thanks for reading!
- Trying to use Threadloop more to also track my fabric and document my makes there! ↩︎
A Perfect Sandwich 