Introduction

As I said in my 2019 Make Nine plans post, for various reasons my wardrobe currently only contains one shirt. I'm very busty and short with a narrow back and shoulders which makes buying shirts interesting but I can sew. So I am looking to join my mother in the adventures of shirt making.

She has made up two versions of McCall's M7575 at the size 14 which is the suggested size for her high bust but they are massive and she has had to make narrow shoulder adjustments. As she is significantly broader shouldered than I am I decided to start off with a pattern from Burda Style 09/2018. The pattern is presented as a shirt dress with the collar and sleeve details I want but is also provided as a shirt with different collar and sleeve details.

Burda Style 09/2018 Shirt Dress 118

Mark 1 - Polycotton Unicorn Pyjamas

The fabric is a polycotton I got for Christmas from my mum. I traced the size 38 of the shirt dress, 118, but at the length of the shirt, 119. I shortened the pattern by 4cm and made a 8cm full bust adjustment. Due to slight underestimation of the amount of fabric needed to pattern match the very directional print the sleeves were shortened 8cm and the pyjama legs to 3/4 length.

I followed the pattern instructions on the construction but as I wanted to make up a set of pyjamas, I added piping to the yoke seams, collar, fastening bands and cuffs. I also changed the cuff from a close fitting cuff with a button and sleeve vent to a simple loose fitting cuff.

I followed the pyjama bottom pattern from the Great British Sewing Bee first book but shortened the legs to three-quarter length with a piped cuff and added pockets. The pattern pieces for the pockets were stolen from Ottobre Angel Wing Jeans.

The bust adjustment width is right but I need to rotate the dart. However the top of the shirt is oversized in general. As a pyjama shirt it is fine but for daytime wear I would need to also make a narrow shoulder and narrow back adjustment. Therefore I am going to retrace the pattern at a size 36 grading out to a 38 for the waist and hips. I also need to do a better job of shortening the pattern not just skip adding the hem allowance.

The sleeves were slightly tight around the bicep when I tried it on over my polo shirt, but fine without a shirt underneath, so I will need to do a full bicep adjustment on the size 36. The armscye on the size 38 was not quite the right shape either. They are also short by about 2.5cm so I will do my normal 5cm sleeve shortening when I retrace.

Annoyingly with just the full bust adjustment the pattern fits my mother better than the McCall's M7575 does with narrow shoulder, straight back, narrow bicep and dart adjustment, as she is showing off below. She had just decided if she was going to continue with the McCall's pattern she needed to restart with the size 10, a full bust, broad back and straight back adjustments when I finished making up my muslin of this. Which means I can't just alter my already traced pieces I'm going to have to retrace them from scratch. Okay, okay, so I was going to have to do that anyway but I could have stolen the collar, collar stand and fastening band.

I'm really glad I made this muslin up out of fabric I wasn't very attached to. I still love the colour way of minty green with shocking pink and the way the shocking pink piping highlights that. The heart shaped buttons really aren't my style or something I would feel comfortable using but I think they work well with the unicorns and their rainbow manes. These are going to live in a drawer until we either collect enough stuff to be worth paying for a stall, decide we can face eBay, or need a short notice present for someone who is a petite XS.