Sewing Through the Decades Challenge

A Lemon Squeezy Home: Sewing Through the Decades

July 11th - July 17th: 1960-1969

July 18th - July 24th: 1970-1979

This is my contribution to the Decades Project!

My mom was giving me some fabric scraps, and while going through the piles, we found a shirt pattern that's not dated, but I think is from the 70s and possibly even 60s!  I've used online patterns before and instructions with photos to make things.  I've even created my own way of putting things together.  But I've never used a store bought pattern.  I've bought a few and have them in my "to do" folder.

This pattern has 4 different shirt varieties.  I picked the easiest (gimme a break!).

I bought some adorable fabric on sale and laid out my pattern pieces.  I measured.  Then remeasured.  Then measured again.  And again.  And some more.  I only had 1 yard of fabric, so I knew I had to get it right!

I cut the pieces and started sewing.  Man was I trucking along and doing good!  I had half the shirt together in the amount of time it took my husband to shower.  I was very proud of myself.  Then it got rough.  I started sewing in the inside arm and neck pieces.  They weren't matching up.  And they were jumbled up.  And they were frustrating!  I got it all sewn together, ironed it down, and tried it on.  And the armholes were too tight.  Umph!  And I couldn't get the inside lining pieces to lay flat.

Then I remembered-- I have a seam ripper!  I started ripping away!  I said buh-bye to those lining pieces.  Once they were gone, the armholes were roomy enough.  I decided just to make a hem all the way around the raw edges.

So I guess I didn't follow the law exactly, but I did learn a few things-- like how much I love seam rippers!

I made the bust a little smaller, and I lengthened the shirt by a couple inches.  I think I'll go back in and add vents to each side so the shirt doesn't bunch up when I sit down.