Cozy Winter Buffalo Check Shirt

Hello again! 

The theme for the second week of Project Run and Play is Buffalo Check Fabric, and my lack of buffalo check fabric in my stash sent me to the fabric store. I haven't needed to visit Joann's for quite a while, so it was a trip I was looking forward to! 

Fortunately for me, I found a soft buffalo check flannel in the remnant bin, along with a few other fabrics that I "needed." Haha, that's why I try to stay away. 

It was a rather small remnant, so I looked through the fabric I already had for something that would complement it well. I found this black and white knit that I used for another outfit for my daughter back in January 2016. 

I didn't do much planning this time, and instead just went with the flow of inspiration and adjusted my plans as I went along. 

I decided to use the shirt pattern I used for the Jigglypuff shirt, since it still fits my daughter well and I wouldn't need to adjust the sizing. It is Kwiksew K3861, and it is a fairly straight-forward sew. 

I thought the pattern needed a little sprucing up, so I added two buffalo check pockets to the front of the shirt and a sparkly silver sequin trim. The pockets have the buffalo check flannel on one side and plain white fabric from a repurposed bedskirt on the other side. I sewed them together pillowcase-style, turned them the right way, starched and pressed them, topstitched around the sides, then attached them to the skirt portion of the skirt.

I didn't want to accidentally sew over the top of the sequins when attaching the trim to the shirt, so I sewed it on by hand. Although it is tedious, I kind of enjoy sewing by hand. It's a good thing I do, because unbeknownst to me at this time, I had a lot more hand-stitching to do for this project. 

I felt so accomplished when I finally made it to this part of the process. The first part of the process seemed to take forever to get through, but I think it was just because last week was so busy with Halloween festivities.

Although this knit black and white fabric is very soft, it can be very difficult to sew with. It is a mystery fabric that I bought from the flat-folds apparel fabric section of Hancock fabrics before they went out of business, so I'm not exactly sure what it is. It is similar to a sweater knit though, and it has little balls of the fabric that fall off when it is cut. I needed several pins to keep the collar piece in place as I sewed it down. 

Since I don't own a serger, I used a zig zag stitch to finish all the raw edges of the knit fabric so it isn't constantly shedding when washed and worn. Unfortunately, this caused the collar to twist in a lettuce edge hem, and that was not the look I was going for at the collar. 

I folded it toward the inside, and hand-stitched it down so it didn't look so wild and crazy. I also added buffalo check fabric to the sleeve cuff and inserted a piece of elastic in each one to have a better fit around the arms. 

Here is the finished product! I did most of the work during a late night sewing session last night, and everything fortunately turned out alright. I'm always worried something crazy will happen when I sew too late into the night, like sewing over my fingers or ruining my entire project through a silly mistake.

I really like how the fabrics look together. The whole shirt is very soft and cozy, and I think it will be a winter favorite this year!

The instructions said to finish the back with a button, but I thought a ribbon tie would be cuter, and more comfortable. 

It is such a pretty little ribbon. 

Since I finished it early this morning (I worked past midnight last night), my daughter didn't know it was ready until after she woke up this morning. She was so excited for it, and is still wearing it even though picture time is over. 

I really love the ribbon on the back. It makes the shirt a little more sweet and feminine. 

Her most favorite part of the whole shirt are the pockets. She loves pockets on clothes, and is looking forward to storing things inside of them.

In the end, I have decided to call this the Cozy Winter Buffalo Check Shirt. The black and white fabric reminds me of snow, the sequin trim reminds me of ice, and the red buffalo check makes me think of all things cozy and warm. I think it is a nice juxtaposition of the feeling brought by the winter season. 

Do you have any crafts to prepare for the upcoming seasons? What are working on? I would love to hear from you!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Bridget :)