I made for my husband another shirt using the Kaffe Fasset shot cotton from purl soho. This fabric is so wonderful to work with I’ve considered a few times sneaking off with it to make myself something instead of for him… but that would not be playing fair, right? This fabric was bought with shirts for Craig in mind, and I must stick with my original good intentions. No matter how fabulous it is… sigh
The name of this colour is Smoky; and has a deep purply blue warp and a lighter periwinkle/baby blue weft. I’ve put in a picture showing the different threads below, because I know everyone is totally and completely fascinated with fabric and its composition and loves to get up close and personal …. no? er, that is just me then…hehe
This shot cotton is very light and almost sheer, and is perfect for mens’ summer shirts. I often feel sorry for men in the heat of summer, they have to wear shorts or trousers, and don’t get the option of floaty unfitted dresses like us girls, which are so much cooler. I know for myself when the temperature is brutally high I almost can’t bear the thought of a constricting waistband, trapping in the heat and suffocating my body. This fabric is light and breezy and just gorgeous. And a dream to work with.
I made this shirt using Burda 7767. I’ve used this pattern so many times now it is practically a sloper, whatever that is. Such a strange word, yes?
There are not many variations introduced into the pattern this time, it is a pretty basic effort. There are two breast pockets with flaps, and the sleeves have been shortened. Of course, the shortening of the sleeves makes for a heaps easier construction, not to mention a decent amount of leftovers that I might manage to get some little thing out of for me! The lower hemline is curved. This can be quite difficult to do with some wovens but not so much with this great fabric. I think the looseness of the weave is just enough so it has a very slight stretch to it, making a double foldover hem around those curved edges not so much of a problem.
I used up some leftover thread (from my rusty corduroy jeans) to stitch this. Plain mens shirts look great with contrasting topstitching, and I adore the vibrancy of this strong tomato red against the dull denim-y blue! I was also lucky enough to find the perfect buttons. There is one sewn decoratively on the outside of each sleeve hem for a bit of interest. Also there is a buttonhole on each of the collar ends, but this is purely decorative and has no button, nor is it even cut open. This is just a casual shirt, but I like these echoes of businesswear details on a casual shirt sometimes.
(btw, about the headless shots? sometimes he gets shy and requests this….)
Details:
Shirt; Burda 7767, with minor fitting and design modifications, shot cotton
