Gray and White Striped Shirt

I was looking for a project to try out on the new Bernina 830.  I had done a couple small refashions, but I wanted to work from a pattern on this one.  The fabric was a knit white with gray stripes and came from mom's stash.  She bought it to make a maternity maxi-dress for my last year sister, but my niece was born before that project even got cut out.  I hadn't made a long-sleeve knit shirt in awhile, so I decided to give that a try.  I made the pattern from an old shirt that I had deconstructed so I could trace the pieces.  

The fabric was laid out on the front porch and I only had to shoo the cats away twice.  Fabric has a very intense 'come hither' look for cats, especially when it's laying in the sun.

Cutting the bottom along a stripe

I worked very hard to match up the stripes on the pattern pieces.  I thought the stripes should meet on the sides of the shirt and the hem should follow one stripe.  The side and shoulder seams were put in and finished with the serger.  One armhole may be a bit larger than the other as I did see some extra fabric under one sleeve hole.  I made some changes to the original pattern, but I'm going to see how this turns out in the end.

Good fit except for the armholes

Stripes match up pretty well on the side seams

Back view, stripes hang horizontal

Next, the full length sleeves were set in.

Bernina 830 had no trouble with this task

Sleeves

Neckline seam serged

I'd like to say that I planned to have the gray stripe run around the collar, but it was a happy surprise.

Gray stripe through collar

For the hem on the shirt I pinned it so that the gray stripe was at the bottom and hand basted it before finishing it with the machine.

The finished shirt has a good sleeve length and I added two inches to the body length.  I love having a shirt that will hang over the top of my jeans.  The scoop collar turned out well, buI think I need to add a bit more fabric to the upper arm next time.  I can move in the shirt, but I don't want to do any heavy flexing...would I do that anyway?  I'll make a few changes to my pattern and try it again.  Overall, I do like this shirt through and I think it will be in heavy rotation as it will do with about anything.

Front view

Back view

Gray and white striped shirt update:  I wrote this post back in February when I actually made the shirt, but didn't get the pictures uploaded until recently.  Since Feb, this shirt has indeed been a regular staple in my wardrobe.  I haven't gone back to revise the pattern and make an updated version yet, but this post reminded me that I want to do that.