The Yellow Shirt (Breakfast Club Wardrobe, the Final Chapter)

My yellow summer shirt is finally complete. Finished in late October, after a series of setbacks, I wear it as the beneficiary of still-warm weather in San Francisco.

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Some Construction Notes

For most projects, including dress shirts, I generally use Crayola Washable Fabric markers for fabric marking.  I got this idea from PatternReview.com’s 1001 Hints and Tips book, and they’ve generally worked well for me.

One thing I’ve started doing when stitching shirt pockets, is to outline the pocket with the Crayola marker. I’ve found I lose track of where the pocket edge is otherwise, so the marker line keeps me “on-edge”, so to speak.

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In the photo, you can also see the alignment marks for the buttonholes and a purple dot in the center of each buttonhole where I poked through for button placement on the other placket.

I’ve had a very good history with the washable markers; they come right out of cotton fabrics in the wash, and heat (such as an iron) doesn’t seem to set a stain.  Except for this time.

I had to run the shirt through the laundry twice to get the markers out, and this time there’s a mark that doesn’t seem to want to come out, right where the right collar edge meets the collar stand.  You can see it as a greenish tinge in the photo below.

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I’ve soaked it overnight, which hasn’t seemed to help, but I haven’t given up yet.  I’m guessing that perhaps the glue in the fusible interfacing has taken on the dye when heat was applied.  Or else maybe the fabric markers were sitting on the shirt for too long (over a month, in this case).  It’s not super-noticeable, but it is a bit irritating.

Next Time

To keep this project from drawing on forever, I’m declaring partial victory with the completion of the three shirts and moving on.

I’m currently contemplating a holiday sewing project; perhaps if I start now I can finish by next July!

 

 

13 thoughts on “The Yellow Shirt (Breakfast Club Wardrobe, the Final Chapter)

  1. Diana

    I look forward to getting your e-mails and watching the progress of whatever project you undertake. You do a beautiful job on your shirts. From a distance you can’t even tell there’s a pocket, it’s so well matched.

  2. Mssewcrazy

    Very very nicely made shirt ! I was excited about the markers until you said you are trying to get the stain out . I had that happen once with the blue marking pen when I ironed over a hem . It’s so irritating when that happens. Most fabrics like with your markers no problem. I need to reread the PR book. I have a couple of tips in there that somehow made the cut. I am so forgetful at this life stage, don’t remember what they were . I do remember there were some things like the markers I had meant to try. Did you tell us the pattern number you used on the shirts? I used to sew dh some western shirts but could probably use a more up to date pattern.

    1. mportuesisf Post author

      Mssewcrazy,

      The pattern is McCall’s 6613. What’s neat about it is that it’s a unisex pattern, so you can make it either as a men’s shirt or women’s blouse.

      On some prior projects, I’ve had to wash twice to get the Crayola markers out, but this is the first project where the marker has stuck around. Soaking it for a day and running it through the machine again didn’t help. I might try some stain remover products next; fortunately I still have scrap fabric left to test on.

      1. mssewcrazy

        Thanks for the pattern info. I am picking it up at the next pattern sale. Sometimes the mark monster just happens. It is not too noticeable on this color and hopefully it will leave after another wash or two. I am still going to buy some of these markers as they look really handy.

  3. Mary Russell

    Lovely shirt. I had the same problem with a supposedly disappearing marker. Fortunately – depending at how I look at it – I had to resew the jacket section about twelve times!!! So I did not use the Walmart pencil – blue on one end, purple on the other. I learned also to mark within the seam and on the wrong side!

    1. mportuesisf Post author

      Thank you for the compliment! I’m liking the Juki so far. After I’ve completed a couple projects, I’ll do a review.

  4. Gina Comer

    Beautiful job! Glad you finally got through all the troubles. Loved the new machine Pr0n! I am covering it now.

  5. John Yingling

    I use the purple disappearing ink pens for most markings. They are the best for marking light fabrics and will disappear within 24 hours. I did some white poly charmeuse draped Grecian inspired dresses for a musical play that ended up covered with the purple ink. When I had a fitting with the actresses that were going to wear them, they were worried that they would be Greek goddesses in purple dresses. I told them, don’t worry, it’ll be gone by the next rehearsal. Sure enough, they were snow white the next day!

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