Embroidered Top

Oh look, an embroidered shirt!  Perfect for making a cute top for the princess.

First I cut out the dickey that is sewn in.  Sometime I use a stitch picker to remove things so I maintain a nice clean finish on the inside of the garment, but I know that this collar part will be chopped off anyway so I just whack it right out.

 It was sewn in at the sides too.  I took more care in cutting it out there, cutting a little closer to the stitch.

Out it comes, and of course I'll save it since it has that little embroidery detail.  Maybe I'll add it to a pair of jeans later.

Sometimes I eyeball things but I happen to know that I have a pattern that will give the shape I want.

So I use the bodice piece of it to trace out my basic neckline shape.

I use the back pattern piece face down since my shirt is not turned inside out.  The back piece rises a little higher than the front.  Notice that neither piece reaches the true middle of the shirt as it should.  It's not a big deal, it just means that my shirt will be a little fuller than the pattern.

Then I cut along the line being careful to not cut the back since I know it is not a mirror image of the front.  Notice that price tag from the thrift store.  I might have paid even less if it was bought on a 50% off day!

Then I serged the edge of the neckline using the serger.

I decided to top-stitch down both sides of the button placard so that she will not be able to unbutton the top, since there will be no need once the top elastic is in.

Then I flip and sew the serged edge down to create the channel for the elastic.  I just left a little space open to insert the elastic and stitched it closed afterward.

And here it is.  

The sleeves ARE the same size, it's something about the way it is hanging.  I didn't even touch those anyway, so they better be the same!   My thought on this final product is to maybe add an elastic to the sleeve too, to give it a little puff sleeve, closer to the look of the pattern.  I'll see what she thinks.