New Look 6266 Button-Down in Mousey Grey Polka Dots

The recent button-down shirt/shirtdress trend in the sewing blog community?

Well I guess you can call me trendy, because I am all about this one.

I'm still very much interested in sewing more clothing for work and I've developed a bit of a uniform of skirt, button-down, cardigan and tights. Endlessly mix-and-matchable!

This is New Look 6266, which I've blogged about once before.

This time, instead of creating a hem that is split at the side seams as instructed, I sewed the seam shut all the way down.

I liked the split hem on my seersucker version for sitting, but the hem split tended to get folded up against my chair and get all wrinkly.

The one error I made on this version is that I didn't have/feel like making normal bias tape, I had quarter-inch bias tape masquerading as half-inch bias tape (ie it was double fold, but not folded in half, if that makes sense). So the underarm is bunching a bit more than usual because only about half of the seam allowance was folded under.

I didn't think it would make that much of a difference, but it totally did!

The fabric I used was a one-yard remnant of mouse grey fabric from Blackbird Fabrics. When Caroline posted on Instagram that she was selling off some remnants, I hopped on and saw this for $5.

I have had a lifelong obsession with polka dots and I adore anything grey.

I did all of my top-stitching with white thread and used opaque white buttons from JoAnn Fabrics -- they kind of look like giant polka dots, don't they?

On the inside, I finished all exposed seams by serging with white thread. I keep meaning to sit down with one of my sewing books and read about flat-felled seams, but I've been lazy.

I finished the hem with the same bias tape I used on the armholes. I do like the look of a bias tape hem and it preserves more of the length. 

I am definitely still in love with the top-stitching on my Pfaff. The stitches come out so clean and even. It makes me want to topstitch all the things!

I have another button-up blouse and a couple shirtdresses to share coming up here. Greg and I finally reordered the guest room so that we can take indoor winter pictures again (the guest room is the only room in our house with suitable natural light for blog pictures!) My apologies for the long absence! We photographed five outfits today, though, so get excited for some blog posts coming up. ;)

I'd love to know what you all think of the button-up trend -- and sewing blog trends in general. Are you all about them? Totally uninterested? Or somewhere in between?