This is my prototype for a short sleeve summer dress shirt, but which could also be worn during winter with a turtleneck or similar long sleeve T-shirt underneath. It’s nothing too grand, but fun to wear. The pattern is related to running, which I had done extensively in the past and still do today in a recreational manner. Of particular interest to me was the fact I now had a shirt with “No Pain No Gain” written on it.

I used my standard dress shirt shell. It generally fitted well, except for the sleeve. On the long sleeve, I wanted room inside it and didn’t want my arms to look skinny, so I had some volume to it. I had forgotten that so when I made this shirt, the short sleeve that did not cover my entire arm, completely exposed my relatively skinny upper arm with its big width providing excessive contrast to my arm size.

In the design, I added a “cuff” for highlight, a little formality, and a space for decorative purposes. I could put things like pins or buttons on it that matched the shirt print, or just for show. I don’t know where my handful of running pins are, but I could have put some with this shirt. For future design with geek prints like superheroes, I can definitely add pins to the cuffs to make the shirt even more themed than its print!

Bronze rating

So despite the shirt having its flaws with the sleeve cuff size, it’s still a nice shirt and I’ll definitely wear. Materials aren’t great or grand, but the front pattern matched well from side to side. It also felt very comfortable worn to a swing dance lesson and social this past weekend. Bronze rating it is!

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