Green spotty Butterick B6026 shirt

I think this is one of the tidiest things I've ever made....

I was reading Rhonda Buss' blog the other week, she often posts an inspiration post on a Monday morning, and on this particular morning she posted about dart manipulation.  I love a little added subtle detail to clothes - I think it elevates them above the normal and often adds a little femininity.  In this particular post she linked to Butterick B6026, so I thought I'd give it a go.  After realising that it was a ridiculous amount to buy it here in Switzerland, I ordered it from the UK.  I had some fabric in my stash that I had bought from Just Sew in Penrith (probably my favourite sewing shop - it's convenient for when we visit my parents, but they often have nice fabric in at a reasonable price, especially compared to the absurd price of fabric here in Switzerland).

Anyway, pattern and fabric chosen I got going...

There are clusters of darts at the waist, neckline and the sleeves - in order to mark on all my lines I used a pilot, frixon pen... I read in a blog (can't remember which one) that lines drawn on by these pens disappear when you iron them - and then come back again when you pop the fabric in the freezer.  I haven't had a need for the latter part of this, but for drawing lines on fabric this pen is great.

 Sleeve dart lines...

...and sewn

I also used it to add a sewing line to the corners of my collars to keep them neat:

As you can see, once it's stitched and ironed the pen disappears.  I did, of course, check this on a scrap of the fabric before I went ahead and did this - especially on the darts where I was marking on the right side of the fabric.

Anyway, back to the shirt - it came together really well - everything lined up nicely :-)  To get a really neat finish I constructed it using French seams throughout (have I mentioned I love French seams?)

I sewed a straight size 10, with no alterations....

I think the shape of it's really flattering - it almost makes me look like I've got a waist!

 And the dart details add just a little extra something.  The ones at the neckline get a little lost under the collar, but I think the others, especially in this spotty fabric look really nice.

As I said, I'm also proud of the inside: French seams, including the armhole seam.

I'm also pleased with how neat my collar turned out.

The buttons I used were in my stash - I had a set of 6 white shirt buttons... I think these might have come from my Nanna as they were on a pretty old piece of card.  I then added a single wooden button at the collar, just for fun.

All in all I'm really pleased with this shirt and how it fits.