Father’s Day Shirt Special!
…a Father’s Day shirt special!
Happy Wednesday everyone!
Hope you’ve all been (responsibly) enjoying your new-found shopping freedom! I personally queued up outside sports direct for nearly 3 hours to get 50% off! The retail workers were really doing all they could to keep it safe for shoppers, but you’ll always get the odd few complaining about waiting!
This week I’ve been making a shirt as a Father’s Day gift for my dad! Sarah gifted me this fabric as it had a slight sun bleach to it, so now of course it’s been abducted by her, so look out for it in or around the shop window when you’re walking past or coming for your shopping appointment! It’s a lovely chambray denim fabric with a white plane outline pattern scattered across the length, which I immediately thought would make a stylish men’s shirt!
I used this great pattern by Burda; the 6349. This would be my first of their designs and also my first men’s garment! I was a little bit apprehensive, but, with the offer for help from Sarah, I got to work. I tried to avoid the sun-bleached spots, but as there were a few, I decided to try and incorporate it as a feature!
Firstly, I attached the pocket to the front left piece, something that thanks to my Simplicity dress, I already know how to do. And I’m very pleased with how it started off, I don’t think I could have done any better with the top stitching!
Next, came the yoke, now this is a new thing for me, and looking at it, it did seem a bit daunting, but once I looked at the instructions step by step it was actually pretty straight forward. Attach one yolk piece right sides facing the back panel and one right side to wrong side, then fold them back and you’ve got a nice clean seam with no raw edges!
I then simply had to attach both side pieces by the shoulders to complete the back piece.
Moving on to the collar and collar band, this was where, if I was going to come into difficulty, I would need help. I will admit, it took me a bit of reading and re-reading the steps for the collar, but with a little clarification on what I was believing to be correct from my mum (who we all know isn’t the craftiest of the ASU team!) and some perseverance I got it looking like a collar! And a pretty good one too, if I do say so myself.
I then started the process of attaching the collar, I struggled to get my head around this part as well, especially since my edges at the point of joining didn’t look like other shirts I’ve seen; where they are slightly rounded, mine were more a point and weren’t sitting right. However, with a little bit of playing around, I managed to get it looking smooth and neat.
Net step was to attach the sleeves to the body. I definitely prefer adding sleeves before sewing the sides up rather than edging them in, it’s much easier! So, the sleeves went in pretty easily.
On to the penultimate step, hemming the sleeves and bottom edge, and then finally, adding the buttons and button holes, using my newly found button holing skills!
Overall, I’m so happy with how the shirt turned out, and I even did a bit of tailoring to my model (dad)! He looks pretty happy with it, and in his words “It’s alright” which is high praise indeed from him! He wears it pretty well, but don’t tell him that, he’ll get a big head!
Happy Father’s Day to all dads, step-dads, foster dads, granddads and anyone in between! Despite the restrictions on meetings, I hope you all have a great day and enjoy the celebrations you all deserve.
