FO: Deep Teal Boogie Retro Shirt

So you've seen my crazy skirt, now you get to see the shirt I made so that the skirt would work in my wardrobe :) I rarely make "outfits", mostly because I just make whatever I want to keep it fun and that much planning feels more like I'm forcing myself to make certain things (ridiculous, I know, but there it is). This shirt, though, I actually wanted to make. Months ago I decided I wanted to finally make up this skirt, but I wouldn't let myself until I figured out a top to wear with it. So I pulled out every knit fabric I thought might go with it and compared them to the skirt fabric. At first I thought the red I used on my first Boogie Retro Shirt would work, but once you lay those two fabrics together it's glaringly obvious the reds are not the same. The top fabric was much more orangey red while this is a more blue red. I tried light blue, black, and mango orange, but when I pulled out this dark teal fabric I couldn't believe the result: it is the exact color in the middle of the blue leaves! The decision was made and these fabrics started to live together until I got up the nerve to sew them. Now they are a real duo and I love the resulting outfit :)

This is (yet another) Boogie Retro Shirt by Cecelia Theresa Designs, and definitely the best fit I've achieved so far :) Taking all the things I learned from my first two tries at this pattern, I has a list of changes to do this time:

• split difference at sides of neck area (now about 1/2" wider than original pattern)
• cut entire front on fold, negating the bust curve 
• scoop out front under arm of bodice piece 1/2"
• add 1" to length
• remove 1" from each neck band
• lengthen the bust gathers by 1.5"

All my changes worked out really well :) My only gripe now is that I still have some pooling at the arm pits on the sides of my bodice in spite of doing the same alteration as my Crazy Daisy top (which fixed the issue completely on that version so I thought I was good). This fabric is actually the exact same as the red I used for my first try at this shirt, where I also had this problem, so I'm just chalking it up to a quirk of this fabric. It's not keeping me up at night. Everything else turned out really great. You can also see from this side view that the shorter bands totally solved my gaping issue :)

A little wrinkly, but overall I love the relaxed fit of the back. I decided to try sewing the sleeves in differently too - I basically didn't "gather" the sleeve tops, I just kept splitting the difference and pinned the heck out of this. Part of this was from laziness since I had already pinned the sleeves to the body before I realized I forgot the gathering stitches and I didn't want to take it all apart. I wanted to see if doing it this way would help avoid puckers. Spoiler: it didn't, lol. I don't have any glaring puckers or anything, but it wasn't at all easier than the other way. At least I got it out of my system, I guess.

I'm still on the fence about adding to the gathered area on the bust. In person I kept thinking it looked like the gathered area was too high on my red version, despite people telling me that in photos it looked fine. Maybe it's just my brain revolting against the changes I made that made this different from the example, I don't know. I wanted the gathered area to end lower in my bust, so I just started the clear elastic lower there. It is definitely longer now, but now I can't decide if it's too long and looks weird, lol. Goldilocks syndrome, I swear. Happily the 1/2" I added to the sides of the neckline worked perfectly :) No more garments showing, but no more dorky weird scoop neck. Yay!

All in all I'm very happy with this top :) Not only does it go well with Tigeroga skirt, it also goes with my black or purple Hollyburn, among other skirts in my wardrobe. I love a versatile but cute top.

And here is my completed outfit how I prefer to wear it ;) I'm so happy with how this little venture matches. Incidentally I discovered while taking photos of my last 4 makes (all in one session) that they all work as a mini capsule wardrobe, giving me 4 outfits just with these pieces, not to mention what I could add to that number being one of the items is a black skirt. I guess that's the way things go with solids, huh? lol Maybe I'm maturing in my sewing choices. At least it got me some cute outfits.

Summary:
Fabric: 1 yard of deep teal cotton interlock - $1.00 (thrifted)
Pattern: Boogie Retro Shirt by Cecelia Teresa Designs
Notions: clear elastic - $0.15, teal thread - $0.50, woolly nylon thread - $0.50
Time: 2.5 hours
Total Cost: $2.15