Does This Post Make My Butt Look Big?

It has been a much busier than usual work week for my fingers at the keyboard, and ugh.  All this work is cramping my style.  Kicking my butt.  Also?  Making my butt larger.  I didn't measure, but I swear I could feel it expanding as I sat on it all day.  Okay, that's kinda gross.  I guess the plus side (and I don't mean my rear end now) is that I have earned a little extra to cover my recent fabric buying spree.  I think that's called karma.

While I sat here working at the computer all day, my mind did wander.  Often it wandered to mulling over the fitting issues of the men's shirt I'm sewing along on. 

Let me stop here and tell you something very important that I have learned so far on this Men's Shirt Sew-Along.  Are you ready?  Here it is.

If you're thinking of sewing a men's shirt for yourself, you need to perform this test first:   Look down the front of your pants.  If you can answer the question, "Boxers or briefs?" go ahead and sew yourself a men's shirt.  If not, BUY YOURSELF A WOMEN'S SHIRT PATTERN, ALREADY!  And preferably one from the current century.

Trust me on this one.

Anyway, tonight I cut out another muslin, Muslin #2, as it were.  I am not even going to show you how it looks because it's just fuglier than heck—I had to use two different fabrics because I ran out of the vintage sheet, so the sleeves and collar are from a different but just as crazy-grandma-looking fabric from stash.  Then, instead of walking on the treadmill this evening, which I should have done after all the butt growing today, I sat some more, this time at the sewing machine, sewing enough seams on Muslin #2 to be able to try it on and assess the fit.  Verdict:  Better in some places, different issues now in others.  I got rid of the gathering below the yoke and that part looks much better.  Except now I can tell that I apparently have a sway back (the old mare ain't what she used to be), so I have to pinch some fullness out of the shirt back horizontally.  And speaking of the back side, guess what?  I could use a bit more room across the seat.  Go figure.

I apparently also took a little too much out of the sleeves on Muslin #2, because now it's a bit tight at the sleeve cap.  I really don't know what I'm doing with the sleeves.  In fact, I'm sort of making it all up as I go along on this shirt, period.  Speaking of which, check out the very unscientific method I'm using to adjust the collar.

The collar on Muslin #1 is big and wide and pointy and kind of scary.  Other than that, it's fine.

I wanted the collar a little narrower, so I grabbed the painter's tape and taped off the shape I envisioned for it.

Then I drew inside the line of the painter's tape in pencil.

Tonight, I placed the collar pattern piece over the actual collar and transferred the pencil line to the pattern piece. 

Then I traced a new pattern piece based on the new shape and cut it out.  I'll sew it onto Muslin #2 tomorrow.

If the new collar works out, I'll do a happy dance!  

I've heard it can make your butt smaller.


PS - There's still time to enter the giveaway. I'll draw the winner tomorrow at noon.