Butterick 5526 - My first attempt at a collared shirt.

I've been doing a little bedtime reading lately.  My book of choice; "Shirtmaking" by David Page Coffin. - "Developing skills for fine sewing".  I purchased this book many years ago with the intention of becoming a proficient shirt seamstress. ;)  When it arrived, I was a little shocked that someone could write a 173 page hardcover book entirely about sewing a shirt!  Is it really that difficult? Is there really that much to know?  I think I was a little put off by the expanse of information and decided to put the book and my shirt-making ideas aside.

Fast forward to 2014 - The year in which I challenge my sewing skills!  I have decided that it is time to read the book and sew a shirt.  So far I have only read Part One of the book, which includes the chapters "The Materials of Fine Shirts", "The Shirtmaker's tools" and "The Classic Shirt".  Let's just say that I am a little impatient and wanted to get started on my first shirt.  I probably should have read Part Two before starting because "Making Shirts Fit", "Developing a Basic Pattern" and "Collars, Plackets, Cuffs and Pockets" would most likely have been very useful chapters to have read before commencing!

 Anywho,...here is the pattern I chose to make.  Butterick 5526 and I chose view B but with the D length sleeves.  It is a basic shirt with no dart shaping or back yoke or even pockets!!  I could have chose to put some on but really I just wanted to see how I went with sewing a collar.

And I am happy to say that the collar posed no problems at all.  The issues I had were with the sleeve plackets!  I don't know what I did wrong (I will have to consult Part Two of my book) but they looked really weird.  Luckily for me I choose to wear my sleeves rolled up most of the time so no one should notice.  I used a shot cotton that I have forgotten the name of but it has a pink-green thread colour that you can see better in this close up photo.

In his book, David recommends that a light weight cotton be used for interfacing the collar and cuffs etc. instead of the iron-on interfacing.  I decided to take his advice and used a white cotton batiste that I basted to the appropriate pieces before construction.  I must admit, I think this gives a softer and nicer finish than iron on interfacing.  Yeay, I'm learning stuff!

I would like to mention here that I sewed both the shirt and the duffle coat from my previous post on this beautiful machine.  It's a knee-lever operated Singer 201 that I picked up for a steal at an auction and she sews beautifully!!  Forward and reverse straight stitch only, but she does this with such class and style.

As for the pattern.  I do think the collar is a little large and I think a little more shaping might be nice, but overall I'm pretty happy with my first attempt.

Ottobre design 6/2012 "Puunappi" - a duffle coat for B.

Hi folks! Remember me?..... Ahum, yes, it's been a while.  More than 18 months since I last blogged! Oh well, that's life - live with it.

I thought about starting a completely new blog dedicated entirely to sewing, but I enjoyed reading back over old posts so much that I couldn't abandon this one just yet.  So here I am again with my latest creation. A duffle coat for my youngest boy, who is now TWO!! Can you believe that?! Where does the time go?.......

 I know it is completely out of season but I have had the pieces for this duffle coat cut out for a long time, and one of my new year resolutions is to finish a project before starting work on another. (Yeah, Ha! We will see how long this one lasts!) 

For this coat I chose to use some op-shop thrifted woolen fabric for the exterior, and some flannel fabric from my stash for the lining. I think the most expensive part of the whole project was the buttons!  I prefer to use recycled buttons when I can, however, I really thought this coat needed wooden ones and I had none, so I had to make a trip to Spotty for them. Oh, and the separating zipper was also bought new.

The coat came together reasonably easily, although I did have to unpick several seams when trying to insert the lining into the shell.  Being an Ottobre pattern there are never any pictorial instructions, only written ones, which are often a bit obscure, so I did my best to understand them, failed, and re sewed it the way I believed it would work.

I put in a little extra and hand worked the buttonholes.  Partly because my vintage Singer buttonhole attachment wasn't performing at his usual best. (Perhaps the fabric was a little thick?)

Overall, I am very happy with the result.  Hopefully it will get a bit of wear next winter.  Next on my "to sew" list is a collared, button up shirt for me.  I have never sewn one before and I thought it was about time!  (Promise to post again SOON!).