Friday, April 4, 2014

Sewing: A Negroni Shirt for my love


 Pattern: Negroni Shirt by Colette Patterns
Fabric: about 3 meters dark purple cotton (not exactly sure what it is)
Notions: coordinating thread, 9 buttons, interfacing
Size made: M

I mentioned a little while ago that I was hoping to sneak in an extra surprise birthday present for my darling, which is, I am most happy to announce, exactly what I did!  It definitely got down to the wire but I sewed on the final button late late late the night before. Success! He was able to wear it on the day of!


I purchased a 3 meter cut of this 100% cotton fabric at my local marché for 10€. The fabric has a beautiful hand, slight drape, and feels lovely, light and soft, and happens to be one of my husband's favorite colors! Otherwise, I don't know much about the fabric apart from what I found out by working with it. It holds creases very well, so I must be very careful whilst ironing because it holds the right creases just as well as the wrong ones. (I'm not sure how to say it in English. In French they are called 'faux plis') The fabric also stretches quite a bit on the bias so I was particularly careful sewing curves so as not to stretch the fabric out of shape. Time will tell how this fabric ages.

I've made a few dress shirts for my baby boy but this was the first time I made an adult sized dress shirt. I felt a little daunted because I thought it would be so much harder to get it to look right because it was on a much larger scale. I was cautious and measured and re-measured again and again to make sure that the shirt would fit correctly. I even pulled out his nicest shirt to compare the sizing. All that led me to ascertain that a size M with sleeves shortened by about 2" would be ideal. I think all that measuring led to a pretty good fit! I also put only one pocket.

The pattern includes some wonderful seam finishes such as a flat felled seam for the shoulder seam and the side seam to give a clean, comfortable, durable finish. Folding over the sleeve edge before sewing in the sleeve was a revelation for me. I'm still such a novice at sewing! Inserting the sleeve was also incredibly smooth by using the technique of readjusting and repositioning the sleeve every couple of inches whilst sewing. The result looks really nice!

Everything came together really easily, which surprised me, and to my even greater surprise, my machine absolutely adored making buttonholes on this fabric! (What!? You mean I don't have to coax, beg, force you to make them?!!) My husband is really pleased with the shirt and his official verdict upon trying the finished shirt was "I feel really good in it". Yay!!! 

All in all, I like the pattern but I'm not too sure about the collar. It's not quite a classic collar and I think I would like that a bit more. The facing also seemed rather wide. That said, I think I would make this pattern again. The instructions were really good and I'm glad I started my first adult-sized shirt with it because I feel much more confident in making a shirt pattern with fewer instructions and explanations.  And since one of my husband's other shirts tore at the sleeve just the other day, I have an excuse to make another shirt!

Happy birthday, my love! I hope you'll get a lot of wear out of this!

(If you're wondering, the artwork in the background is a hooked rug my mother made specially for me. Oh, and please excuse my ironing! L damaged my ironing board and I'm just not so sure how to iron that collar to get it to sit nicely! After looking at pictures of the shirt on Colette's website, I guess it is supposed to just be kind of flat.)

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kid's clothes week

Kids ClothesWeek is around the corner! Monday, April 7th to Sunday, April 13th and I am so excited about it. I'm hoping to get some super sewing time in but most of all, I want to enjoy this coming week of sewing!

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