The Flamingo Shirt

This project took me a fairly long time to complete, much longer than my normal shirt-sewing excursions.  The reason is simple – I took my time, and did things as I knew they should be done.  The result is better than my usual rush job, and my sense of satisfaction is certainly there.  I also finally have a new, 100% cotton blouse that is well made.

To complete this project, I did a number of things I have not done in the past.  The first is I sewed bias tape to all the seams except the shoulder seams; since I had forgotten to do those, I zigzagged them.  I worked on the sleeves slowly, and they turned out without too much stress.  The buttonholes, though, required a lot more work.

How many of us have ruined something through inexperience, fatigue, or impatience?  For me, buttonholes have always been a point of sheer frustration, and the cause of a garment in ruins.  Consequently, I often have made loop buttonholes instead of ones cut into the fabric.  To conquer this, I pulled out all stops – I have my old Singer buttonholer with the bight and width adjustment.  I also have a clamp-on for straight stitch machines with templates.  I have another clamp-on with templates for use with zigzag machines.  And finally, my high-end Janome MCP 6500 has a buttonhole attachment.  In the end, I decided on the latter, and practiced making buttonholes.  I think I made fifty or so.  But, the blouse does have buttonholes on it that I do like, but the reverse side always looks better to me . . . maybe I’ll just do them upside down next time.