Shirt #7 (shirting)
I recently purchase two pieces of sale fabric perfect for making long sleeve dress shirts. Jacob has requested a couple for those days when meetings require him to wear a tie. This week, I completed the first.
This fabric is awesome. It’s a cotton/poly blend (for easy care) that is very soft and has a luscious, though subdued, sheen. It’s very best attribute is the price… $3.00 per yard for 56″ inch wide fabric and it takes less than 2 yards to make a shirt! BARGAIN!! The other piece is similar but with black pinstripes.
Honestly, I dislike making long sleeve shirts. Assembling a well-made shirt is enough of a challenge without adding the extra steps of cuffs and sleeve plackets.
This shirt is constructed with contrasting inner collar stand and inside cuffs. The pocket is ‘chevroned’ and the outer cuffs, sleeve plackets, back yoke and collar are horizontally striped for a touch of contrast. The collar is button down style.
Finding buttons was a challenge. Most ‘white’ buttons are actually cream colored and they absolutely would not work on this shirt. I searched several online stores and finally found 1/2″ clear pearled buttons with matching 3/16″ ones for the collar. I bought plenty to add to my HUGE button stash for future shirts.
Overall, I’m very pleased with the shirt and look forward to presenting it to Jacob this weekend. I know he’ll like it and that’s all that counts.
To fill my recent evenings, I’ve dug out an old quilt in need of repair. This is the first quilt I completed WAY back in 1980. It was pieced with everything in my scrapbag at the time, including corduroy, satin, crepe, twill and seersucker (to name a few). It’s amazing it has held up as well as it has through all the washings it’s seen.
Some of the pieces have begun to shred so I’ve selected scraps from my stash to make the repairs. In this photo, you may notice two pieces (green and brown) pinned in place awaiting adjustment and stitching. I’ve cut away the old shredded bits and will applique the new ones in their place. After a washing, the repairs shouldn’t be noticeable.
Our garden has switched to Phase II. The snow peas are all harvested and the weather has warmed so no new ones will develop. Now is when we concentrate on tomatoes… and our plants are loaded with them! If the weather remains stable and especially if we continue having timely rains, we should be pleased with production. I’m looking forward to the first few to mature into big green treats. I’ve been craving fried green tomatoes and intend to make some with the first two candidates.
Other than selecting a roofer for the impending home improvement (which will temporarily halt our quiet solitude), that’s about it on this hill. We are anxiously awaiting an extended weekend visit from Jacob.
Shirl