Pretty Fabric, Turned into a Shirt

This fabric. I love it. Both sides are super soft and gorgeous. It's a knit, yet surprisingly easy to work with. (I'm slightly terrified of working with knits, by the way, but I'm working on getting over that.)

I got to use this fabric to make a friend a dress. Along the way I decided I would have to get more of the fabric for me. It was so pretty and soft! This decided, I just needed to figure out what my fabric would turn into. A dress? No, I didn't want to appear to copy the dress I had just made my friend. A skirt, nah, I don't wear skirts enough to justify that. A shirt? Yes! But what sort of shirt? I had a million different design ideas flying through my mind.
Finally I managed to capture of few of those ideas and sketch them out, along with a diagram of the pattern pieces I would need.

A shirt that would be comfy and showcase both sides of the pretty fabric, perfect. Now I just needed the fabric. So I went to JoAnn's, only to discover they were still out of the fabric! (As a few weeks ago we bought all they had to make that dress) Just as I was about to leave, with plans to check back next week, another fabric caught my eye. It was the same fabric, double layer knit with stripes on one side and little bitty dots on the other, only in black instead of gray! So I got a yard of the super soft, gorgeous, black fabric, and took it home to make my shirt.

First I made my pattern. I traced a shirt I already had for my base, then turned that into what I wanted.

I cut out the fabric and sewed the shirt together. It all came together in about an hour!

Now, since I really dislike hemming knits, I bound all my edges with folded over strips of the fabric.

The neckline binding stuck out a little strange though, so I ran a piece of elastic through it to keep it in place.

Other than that issue, the shirt came out exactly how I imagined it. A definite win as my pattern drafting skills are very limited!

This shirt is super comfortable, and perfect for wearing with jeans. A great addition to my rotation of everyday clothes.

Will I use my newly made pattern again? Absolutely! Next time though, I'll get a bit more fabric, only a yard was cutting it kinda close. I had to use 3 pieces, instead of the originally planned 2, for the sleeves. My binding is pieced together, not on the grain, scrapes. Thus, accounting for the neckline not laying right without elastic. Next time I'll get a yard in half of fabric, but really, that's the only change I think I need to make. Not bad for a first try, huh?