En Curso/In Progress Fit to Face (Shirt, B5526)

By the time I'd finished altering this pattern to the cuff and collar point, ( You may recall that much of the big alteration work was done by my friend Susan), I thought I'd be pretty much done. But there was still something not quite me about this pattern.

Yeh, look'y here.

First pass on my new facing uses muslin
I''ll be creating a jungle print facing for
this shirt once I'm sure of where the
center front lies these days.

The front self-facing doesn't cut it for me. It's the kind that you simply interface with fusible and then turn under twice. I think the pattern designer expects the wearer to button the shirt fairly high, but when I tried the garment on, I automatically pinned my top button position where I always do. It's not immodestly low, but it's lower than the pattern assumes. As a result, the self-facing strip looks just plain ugly showing off the back side of my print. Don't you think?

Here I tested my own creation of a new curved, more interior covering, facing pattern. I created it by tracing from the center front (CF) of my new front bodice pattern onto tissue. I determined how far back/in I wanted that facing to cover, by pencil marking on the turn back point of the stitched muslin (and then added another inch or more for no-show safety).

I made my test facing with a piece of muslin. I'll be creating a facing out of jungle print next. Good thing I tried this because I then found that the center front of the shirt wasn't quite spot on. Good thing I didn't cut away the extra width from the self-faced front. I'll be asking Susan to eyeball the true center front for me in sewing lab, and adapting my new facing pattern appropriately before I cut out a jungle print front facing.

Yes, I do really like the fit of this shirt. Good thing, eh?

I'm looking forward to using this pattern many times as a tried-and-true shirt. So the work will pay off.