Here is my second attempt at sewing a button up shirt from scratch. The pattern probably needs a little more tweaking, especially in the sleeves, but overall it turned out very well.

My first attempt, pictured below, was a long sleeve shirt, which was good as I learned the process of inserting a sleeve placket, something I’d never done. On this short-sleeved version for Seth, I learned some new techniques that helped to make this shirt look a whole lot more finished and professional, all things I will use when I am making shirts to sell this fall.

According to my shirt-making book, all seams should be hidden, so that you have no raw edges. In order to accomplish this I had to learn to do flat-felled seams. Both by hand for curved seams like the shoulder seam and with a felling foot for straighter seams like the side seams. The result is a double seam that hides all raw edges and lies flat so that it doesn’t add any extra bulk.

In my quest to make the process faster, easier and more professional, I not only invested in the felling foot for my machine, but also bought a hemmer foot, which double rolls the fabric while sewing for the hem. It makes the hem easy to do in one step without ironing, and results in a pretty professional looking hemline. I had a bit of trouble learning to use this foot, if you are working with thin cotton fabric like I was, make sure you have a pretty small needle, mine was making too big of holes in the fabric and once punched it down into the machine so that I had to take part of the machine apart in order to release it without ruining my whole shirt. But with a smaller needle and a slower sewing pace, I was able to complete the hem. With practice I think this will become much easier.