William's Shirt is finished

I finished William's shirt before Thanksgiving and he was able to wear it to the festivities.

We had a delightful visit and lots of delicious food. Will post soon about the trip.

Projects

William finished this scarf this week. We bought the fleece at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival last month. He dyed the turquoise. The gray is the natural color of the fleece and then he spun the yarn. Nice, yes?


Meanwhile, I worked on another shirt. This one is turning out quite nicely. I changed the shape of the collar slightly and am much happier with it. I did not try to match the pattern anywhere except the pocket as I used every scrap of fabric just to cut out the shirt. The next shirt, which is already cut out, is a more open plaid and I am trying to match it. Now, I just have to remember to mark all of my pieces right side and wrong side. If you could look closely at the pocket you would notice the twill goes the opposite direction of the rest of the shirt. I looked through my scraps thinking surely there was one large enough for a new pocket, but no... I will have to be happy with this one.

William's Shirt

I finished a shirt for William on Sunday. I made it using Shirtmaking by David Coffin. This is the second shirt I have made using the resulting pattern. Somehow, I have no pictures of the first. I'll have to remedy that.




William is really happy with how these shirts fit him. When I had used a commercial pattern before getting this book, the shirts I made always resembled gunny sacks. He still has a couple of these and I was looking at one the other day. Not only have my sewing skills improved, but I had taken in the sides 2 inches!

David Coffin's method results in a well-constructed shirt. I had a few rough spots following his directions this time, but I worked my way through them. Part of the problem was I had done this before (hmm, almost a year ago) and assumed I knew what I was doing - though in reality I'd forgotten most of it.

What needs to be improved next time:

1.Make the next shirt while I still remember what I am doing. (Shouldn't be hard. I already have two others cut out.)
2. The armscye seam looks wrong to me somehow. I can't figure out what it is and I doubt most people would notice, but I need to figure out what I did and then what is supposed to be done. I suspect they are not the same thing.
3. Work on how the collar is attached to the stand. When I went to press the inner stand seam allowance in to topstitch, there was almost too much fabric to ease into the seam. There is a wonky spot right underneath the collar. After I pulled it out the third time, I decided I could live with what was left.
4. There is a spot on the shirt right below the shoulder blades, where the shirt looks like it caves in. You can see it in the photo above. I wish I knew what caused this and how to fix it!

What I like:
1. The collar shaping turned out well this time.
2. The back hangs nicely.
3. The hem is really even and has a nice curve.

Now on to shirt #2...