I MADE A BUTTON PLACKET!!!! ♥️♥️♥️

Well, four technically…!

Sometimes it’s the little things!!

The latest #minervabrandambassador project I have to share with you all is this Stripey Shirt!!! Which I’m just a little bit in love with!!

I have a stash of BurdaStyle magazines, which I love to flip through now and then to get some inspiration and to partake in some sewing-related reading while enjoying a good cuppa!

And when I got my hands on this gorgeous stripey cotton chambray I knew it had to become a shirt of some kind!

Think those oversized pyjama shirts!

Yep! That was inspiration here!

And when I was perusing my magazines I found the perfect pattern. Style 110 from the July 2021 BurdaStyle magazine!

The fabric, a beautifully soft, yarn dyed cotton, was the perfect shade (“Denim Blue”) to carry on my apparent current blue fabric obsession….! And when it came to cutting out the pieces for my shirt, I found my Fiskar fabric shears gliding through the cotton with ease! Wonderful!

Fraying was minimal and I found myself becoming once again obsessed with cotton!

In recent years my foray into discovering other fabrics had taken me far away from my beloved, trusty cotton. But this project has me reaching back into my fabric stash for all the poplin, lawn and chambray I can find!

This light to medium weight striped cotton chambray (tagged below) comes in 21 colours (I currently have my eyes on the mauve…) - perfect for shirts and summer dresses!!!!

At just shy of 57 inches wide, it’s also a great width of fabric for skirts! And I am currently thinking of a cotton midi skirt….

Hmmmmmm!!!!!!

So fabric in hand, project chosen, it was time to look at what this latest #sewingproject entailed.

Now I’ve sewn MANY shirt dresses before, so am pretty confident with buttonholes, button bands, collars and simple cuffs.

But this pattern? This pattern had something I’ve NEVER done before…

It had BUTTON PLACKETS….

Now in the spirit of following my own advice and intending to make mock-ups of new projects this year to avoid mishaps, I went and ahead and gave this new pattern a practice run.

Now friends at this point it’s important to point out that BurdaStyle patterns don’t include seam allowances…

Can you see where I’m going here?

Yep! I forgot to add them!

But this is why we do mock-ups!!

I have ZERO idea how, but I made those button plackets work on that mock-up even without seam allowances!! I don’t make things easy for myself…!

Now that practice run is almost finished (it just needs hemming and bias tape to finish the armholes inside the garment)

And I’ll be sure to share it with you when it’s finished, but I was far too impatient to get started on the final version!!!

And my goodness! I am so so proud of this shirt! And I’m so proud of myself for learning a new skill and for not giving up when the seam allowance avoidance debacle of 2026 could have led to a neurospicy meltdown!!! (Instead I had a cup of tea and watched Legally Blonde…!)

And then I took a deep breath, I persevered and was (shock horror) kind to myself!!!!

So this project is not only successful in creating a shirt that I love (and that I wore soooo much on holiday over shorts and over playsuits - it’s a great layering piece…!!! Who knew!!!) but it’s also successful in showing me that it’s ok if everything you do isn’t perfect. In fact, that’s just life!!!!

Hemmed with bias tape which also finished the armholes inside the garment, I really took my time with this project, encasing all raw seam edges with topstitching, and playing with the orientation of the stripes (did you notice they’re vertical on the back yoke and cuffs???!!)

You know what, friends?

I’m proud of this garment.

And what a win that is!!!

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

#minervabrandambassador #minervamakes #minervamakers

#sew #sewing #sewandtell #sewist #memade #memadeeveryday #memadewardrobe #imadethis #sewingproject