Color Block Headaches or "A Virtue of Necessity"

Good grief, readers, I had no idea color blocking was going to be so hard.

Yesterday, I finally made my design decision: the two main color "blocks" of my shirt would be cut on the diagonal (front and back).  Little did I know this was going to cause me problems in measuring (never my strong point), exacerbated by the fact that I was working with very limited amounts of fabric.



As you can see above, I was able to cut my fronts so that the diagonal lines meet in the center almost perfectly.  Unfortunately, I forgot to consider that the left side would lap over the right side roughly one inch (I had decided I would not add a front placket to keep things simple -- hah). 

Lapping left over right resulted in this -- ack!



What to do?  I thought about adding a front placket on the left and an "under-placket" extension on the right.  But that would have expanded the neckline considerably -- plus, to make a placket with a diagonal seam would cause its own headaches and I was running out of fabric.

Here's what I came up with: inspired by this vintage 1960 McCall's shirt pattern in my stash, I stitched the center seam closed from the bottom up to the middle -- basically the entire red section.





And lo and behold, I've made a caftan top!



I am still going to add a front center placket (constructed just like a sleeve placket), a collar stand and collar.  I don't think a camp collar (a style that doesn't call for a collar stand) is going to look good with this style shirt.  Please don't ask me why the sleeves are so long; I don't know.  I haven't even added the cuffs yet.

I'll say this for my printed cotton fabric: its design is quite forgiving.  There are a lot of crisscrossing seams (both in front and in back; you'll see the back later) but they've pressed flat quite neatly.



When kind MPB reader Becky showed me this photoshopped test shot she created, I assumed this was going to be a straightforward project.  (Actually, my first thought when I saw this was, "Do I still have to make the shirt?")



Friends, I must get back to work.  I intend to wear this shirt to the Pattern Review anniversary party at Elliott Berman (where I bought my fabric) on Wednesday (6:30 to 8:30 pm).  If not this one, then the solid red one.

Readers, have you every experienced color block headaches?  If so, what did you take for them?

Have a great day, everybody!