One Down, Seven to Go

Today when I got home from work I decided that I would put in a concentrated effort to move some of the unfinished projects out of the sewing room. I picket this one because I wouldn't have to change the thread in the serger. How is that for lazy?

As I mentioned before, this is a shirt for my brother, that he requested when I was making all the shirts for my nephews. Here is the finished product:


Sorry, no "model pic," since I won't see him again until Sunday. This one was relatively easy to finish because I used the serger for all the seam finishing. In fact, it only took about 2 hours start to finish, but then it was already traced and cut out. Here is a shot of the inside:


One thing to remember, when using contrasting buttons like I did here, always match your thread to the buttons. I know that some people might think that that is kind of a "duh" hint, but you have no idea how long I was sewing buttons on with thread matching the fabric and then wondering why my stuff looked homemade.

The serger makes quick work of finishing the seams, and since he is rather rough on clothes I didn't see any reason to do french seams, flat-felled, binding, or any of the stuff I do on my own clothes. Because I know I'm not going to drop spaghetti down the front of it in a week.

The shirt is red broadcloth, and the "stripes" are a quilting cotton with showgirls on it:


The pattern is Simplicity 4760, a pattern with both men and boy's pants and shirts:


It is the same pattern that I used for this shirt for my husband:


Overall, it is a very good pattern. It runs large...but then it's Simplicity. Simplicity ALWAYS runs large. But, it is well-drafted, the notches are all accurately marked, and the sleeve cap is flat enough that even in a woven you can set the sleeves in flat if you ease stitch. I much prefer setting the sleeves in that way.

Also, as you can see the pattern does not include an option for the shirt with the contrasting inset, I just drafted the "stripe" myself. I took a yardstick and just drew on the original pattern where I wanted the stripe to fall, and then when I traced the pattern I traced the front in three different pieces. After tracing, I added seam allowances. The fronts of the shirt are what I sew first, so that I can just treat it as one front piece, and according to the instructions. It is actually very simple.

Tomorrow I will work on the purple dress. I may even have to bring myself to change the thread in the serger!