I don’t know about you, but I LOVE a good woven t-shirt. It’s even better if it’s light-weight but not shear, so that I don’t have to wear a tank top underneath. I have wanted to make the Beatrix by Made by Rae for a long time, but I put it off because I was scared of the button placket. Once I tackled a couple of button up shirt projects, I knew it was a sure thing. Looking back now, my fear was a little silly and I definitely could have tackled it months ago since it’s a pretty beginner friendly pattern.

I love how simple this shirt is and how pretty mine turned out! This fabric is the mini southwestern diamonds rayon, and there may not be much of it left, but there are so many good rayon fabrics available at Califabrics! There are a lot of prints, which are fun, and I am particularly drawn to the dark colors because that usually means that they don’t require a lining (AND- if I miss while top stitching parts of the hem, then I can go over it again and no one will ever notice! Haha). Any other light woven fabrics would work really well for this pattern too.

Rae has such good instructions that are clear and very organized. She especially knows when to bold or italicize things to get my attention so that I don’t get ahead of myself! There were a couple of times I thought, “Oh, I know the next step”, but the I read for another second and was very glad that I did!

I made the size large and lengthened the pattern a total of 1.5″. I added 1″ in between the base of the armscye and the bust dart (my lazy way of lowering the bust dart, since I want to lengthen the shirt anyways). I also added .5″ at the waistline. The length turned out great and the bust darts are in the perfect spot.

I chose to do french seams on the entire thing, and I know I will be glad I did that later, but MAN does that take a lot of patience! I do just fine with the shoulder and side seams, but when it gets to the sleeves, I just about have a panic attack because I’m afraid it will never end. Haha! Thankfully it did end, eventually, and the inside is just about as pretty as the outside!

After I was all finished and tried it on, the only problem I noticed was that in-between the top two buttons there was some gaping because the plackets were twisting around the button (if that makes sense). I tried repositioning the top button, but it didn’t seem to help. I decided to just tack the top and side of the plackets together since I’m able to get this top over my head without having to unbutton anything. I asked Rae if she had run into the same problem before, and she said she had with lighter weight fabric. She said she just tacked it down, or sometimes she just stitches the plackets together and sews the buttons through both layers since the buttons don’t have to be functional to get the top over your head.

The buttons that I used for this shirt are from Benno’s Buttons online, and I thought that these black fisheye buttons looked so cool with this fabric! The fish eye is a little bit hard to see in photos, but it’s a nice subtle detail. I notice when I went back to the Benno’s Buttons website they are giving 10% off your first order if you register too, so score! I’ll definitely be ordering from them again.

I’m excited to make this pattern again sometime since the fit and style is VERY similar to a RTW shirt that I wear ALL the time. To make it like my RTW shirt, I would just cut the back piece on the fold and omit the button plackets and then use a neck binding instead of a facing. Don’t you love when you find a pattern so similar to clothes that you always wear?

Click here for the FABRIC
Click here for the PATTERN
Click here for the BUTTONS

Happy sewing!