Well, I sorta finished that shirt we were discussing in a thread called "buttons". I decided I didn't have a preference between black and white when I put swatches in the collar area to see how it'd look, so I used black because everyone else liked that, but changed it to a band collar.
It's hard to see in the photo (since I tried to make it hard to see in the garment) but there's a placket at the top center, like a golf shirt would have. A large one. I chose to do very minimal stitching on it: there are three buttonholes and a bar tack, and that's all that holds the left placket facing in place. I didn't want to do any more topstitching than I had to, because I wanted it to have a very smooth looking front, interrupted by nothing but three buttons which will blend in very well.
You can see it at:
The buttons are being problematic. Every time I try to attach one of the buttons I wanted to use, it pops out from under the presser foot: they're a bit too rounded for my presser foot. I'm going to ask a friend if I can use his machine, which has a nice button attaching foot with a little clip to hold the button, next time I'm visiting him. Meanwhile I put on one other button so I can wear it if I want to. I like the button I used but unfortunately have only one like it. I will also add a buttonhole or two on the collar to hold that properly, I'll probably use small black buttons. Oh, and since it has an astro theme I'm considering adding Ursa Major in rheinstones on the right sleeve, if I can remember where I put my rheinstones. I'll ask an astrophysicist I know to give me the relative colors and sizes of the stars so it'll be a little more correct and more visually interesting. But, I may decide that's too over the top and not do it. (Although, with this shirt, what could be *too* over the top?)
Tom Farrell