Made By A Fabricista: Oversized Jenna Shirt for Summer Fun

 I may or may not have had several meltdowns during the making of this Closet Core Jenna Shirt…

But let’s back up first. During the month of May, I promised to wear handmade garments every single day for the popular sewing challenge “Me Made May.” I really enjoyed thoughtfully putting together my outfits each day. While I was doing this, I was taking notes of the gaps in my wardrobe. Particularly, I don’t have many transitional shirts that could work for on-camera work attire and be comfortable for the weekend. When I saw this delicious cotton lawn on the Fabric Mart website, I knew that I wanted to make a button up shirt that would be both work appropriate and a nice overshirt for summer evenings over my tanks and tees. 

I have made a few button up shirts before using a vintage Stretch & Sew pattern but I decided to try my hand at the Closet Core Jenna Shirt (up to a 60” chest) which has had rave reviews on social media and pattern sites for being a great pattern with excellent instructions for the collar and sleeve plackets, the two parts of the previous pattern that had tripped me up.

I sewed up view A, labeled by the designer as the “perfect everyday button-up shirt, ending below the seat with a deeply curved hem.” I made a size Medium which corresponded to my waist and hip measurements but was one size larger than my chest measurements. I removed three inches from the length of the shirt and two inches from the length of the sleeves (I am 5’ 3” for reference).

I promised myself to go slowly, follow the instructions with care, and learn some new skills along the way. While I was aiming to make this a true slow-sewing experience, I will admit that I was not precious about pattern matching when I cut out the fabric. For the most part, my pattern pieces looked intentional as I was sewing but much of this due to pure luck. 

The early stages of the sewing process were fun. I like sewing patch pockets and using the burrito method for shirt yokes. I did find the collar instructions to be pretty good, although I reviewed a YouTube tutorial just to make sure I was matching the right parts of the collar correctly (shoutout to online resources!). 

I found the sleeve/sleeve placket instructions to be good enough but began to struggle with the hem. For a deep curved hem, you need to be precise about ironing your hem properly. I thought it would be a good idea to use bias binding around the hem so I sewed it on but didn’t like how it laid (not flat) against the side seams of the shirt. I ripped out the bias binding and proceeded to follow the instructions for the curved hem and bar tack the edges at the side seams. It’s not as clean as I would have liked and I thought the instructions were lacking on this particular section. However, the curved hem looks perfectly fine now and I’m happy with how it turned out.

The next mistake I made–partly due to instructions although mainly due to user error–was putting on the sleeve cuffs. The instructions have you pleat the sleeves and then sew down the cuffs but my notches and circle were not matching up so I ripped up the pleats and just let the sleeves be oversized. This is not a problem for me since my ideal shirt is rolled up at the sleeves and cuffed around my elbows. 

Finally, it was time for the buttons/buttonholes. While I know there is a lot of debate in the sewing community about which is more challenging to sew, zippers or buttons, I personally enjoy sewing buttons. I have a basic Brother sewing machine but it manages to sew up buttonholes just fine. I always do 2-3 practice buttonholes first before diving in.

While my practice buttonholes came out fine, they were looking a little wonky. I opened up my machine and did a quick cleaning to hopefully eliminate any further issues and got to measuring and sewing my buttonholes. Almost immediately, I began having issues. I sewed, unpicked, and re-sewed these buttonholes MANY times. By the last buttonhole, I was so fed up with my machine that I was creating my own buttonhole stitches using varying lengths of zigzag stitches. I was so disheartened by the buttonhole experience that I decided to forgo buttons on the sleeve plackets and the collar because I don’t use them anyways and I’m hoping to get my machine serviced to see what the problem is before diving back into sewing buttonholes for awhile.

Exhausted by this project, I finally put my shirt on and was delighted with the final result. I absolutely love this checked white and blue pattern and the cotton lawn is perfectly lightweight for summer but great for a casual work outfit. I’m so glad that while I didn’t enjoy the process/journey of sewing this shirt, the end result is exactly what I was hoping for.

Do you ever have projects that make you want to throw up your hands and say, “ I’m done!”? While I had plans to make a few more button up shirts this summer, I think I’ll take a break and sew up some swishy skirts and dresses before tackling another shirt again. And I’ll enjoy this one to the fullest while I do so!

Happy sewing!

MARIA  | @whelanmaria