Let's start with the good.
I rarely work in Seattle but when I do it usually involves me complaining because I hate commuting and being away from home longer than I have to. But then Drygoods Design moved their store to downtown Seattle and suddenly having to go to Seattle seems more like a gift than a pain in the butt. No more complaining from me.
My husband - who usually has to listen to all my complaining - thanks you.
As for the pattern, I cut out my recommended size but I added an inch to the length of the body because I'm perpetually worried about shirts coming out too short. I also added1/2 of an inch to the length of the sleeves because some people noted that they wished that the sleeves were a bit longer. Adding the length to the body was most likely overkill because it probably would have been a good length without the added inch, but better safe than sorry I suppose. As for other fit issues, in looking at my handmade tops lately I'm beginning to think that I should be making some alternation to the back/shoulder area because it's a little tighter than I would prefer it to be when moving around. One day I need to take the time to really understand fit and alterations.
That day, however, is not today.
I love the little pleats on the shirt and the fact that the pattern has you pleat a square of fabric and then cut the pattern piece out of the pleated fabric. This way it doesn't matter if your pleats aren't perfect - your pattern piece will still be the right size. Ingenious! In putting the shirt together there were two moments that left me scratching my head, but the videos helped a lot with figuring things out. I will say that I prefer Grainline Studio's explanation for making the sleeve placket, but that may just be a personal preference.
As for the sleeves, I debated about adding the tabs so that they can be rolled up since I'm perpetually cold and will probably always have my sleeves down but in the end I figured that I'd try them out just for fun and I'm really happy that I did. I love the little added detail and I love the look with the sleeves rolled up. Honestly, I'm super-excited that this is such a wearable shirt - both for work and for home.
But now for the ugly - my fabric marking pen has decided to revolt against me and has bleached out little bits of fabric where I marked it for the pleats. You can barely see it in these photos, but you'll have to trust me that there are little bleached out dots running across the pleats. The good news is that I feel like the old me would have thrown a total hissy fit about it, but nowadays I'm too tired for such antics. Mostly I just let out a big groan.
But help me out here, people. What do you recommend for fabric marking? Because I have a feeling that me and this pen are on the outs.