For my next project, say "Hello" to.......

 

Hello Kitty!!!!

 

 

As interpreted by Liberty of London no less!

 

First, a huge apology. This post is WAY overdue. One of my readers generously sent me a length of Liberty tana lawn in this fantastic Hello Kitty print ages ago. She said it was "a bargain", not her colors, and that she wanted me to do something with it. What an amazing gift! I hope she doesn't think I'm a total ingrate for waiting so long to actually cut into it. But special fabric like this takes a lot of consideration. At least it does for me. This is too good to squander. Trust me, I've been thinking long and hard about how best to use this swath of British luxury.

 

It's a swirling print of flowers, toys, strawberries and apples on an ivory ground, with little kitties hidden throughout. One can't help but smiling. It's very "Where's Waldo". This time the game is finding Hello Kitty, who seems to be hiding everywhere. There's even a Hello Kitty on a motor scooter. And the colors! Nothing subdued here. The printing is, as one would expect, incredibly detailed and sharp. For an informative video of Liberty's printing process click here.

 

So what the hell has taken me so long? Quite simply, I didn't think there was quite enough fabric to make a shirt. I was going to need some type of a coordinating fabric to pull it off. Which lead me eventually to this pattern....

 

I was attracted to version B, the white pullover shirt with the bottom panel. I was thinking the bottom could be a contrasting fabric. Some of you may remember that I made the short sleeve version E from a striped linen this past summer. Good thing I made that shirt first, because I found out first hand what a crappy pattern this is! The front placket on version B is completely fake, just a lot of topstitching to give the illusion of a placket. Ugh! Why can't we have real men's clothes? I certainly wasn't going to waste Liberty fabric on "Today's Man"!

 

New plan..... Hack my existing TNT buttondown shirt pattern. Say hello to a real shirt placket, yoke and collar on a stand.

 

Next obstacle.... Finding the perfect coordinating fabric.

 

There seemed no sense in looking anywhere else but here. Beckenstein's on W 39 th St. I usual just drool over what's in the window and keep on walking by. Not this time!

 

 

Beckenstein's has by far and away the largest selection of men's shirting in the garment district. Way more than either of these pictures shows. Truly, a shirt maker's dream store. The only caveat.... There are NO bargains to be had here. But a special shirt deserves terrific fabric.

 

After much deliberation, and help from my patient fabric shopping friend David, I settled on two fabrics.

 

 

 

A lime green, and a lavender 1/16" gingham check. It could have gone so many ways....orange, red, turquoise, pink. Somehow this just seemed to click for me. The scale also seemed to work by not competing with the Liberty print.

 

Everything is prewashed. Time to make a spring shirt!

 

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Shirt for a Snowy Day

Or ..... When great fabric falls on you, you should BUY it!

 

This fabric actually fell on me in a crazy crowded NYC fabric store. Some of you may know the place. It's the one that's perpetually going out of business and everything is 50% off. Yes, that place. You walk through a path about 1 ft. wide surrounded by islands of ITY knit for $3.99.

 

Anyway, this bolt fell on me as I was trying to make my escape from all the ITY. It was a true, "wait, what's this??" moment. It's a heavyweight cotton twill seersucker. I've never seen anything like it. And to make it even more amazing, the rusty orange stripes are actually embroidered onto the fabric. It was fabric love at first sight. The salesman sweetened the deal by dropping the price to $8 / Yd. SOLD!

 

 

 

I good washing and drying really brought out the texture. It did make for some challenges, however. It was virtually impossible to press this fabric in a straight line. Even my buttonholes ended up getting skewed. In the end, none of it is terribly noticeable.

 

 

I picked up a rusty quilting cotton at a local discount fabric place. I used it for the inner collar stand, inner yoke and the inner cuffs. I did something a little different with the pockets by adding a bit of bias binding and turning the pocket top to the outside to create a little flap. Other than that, it's a basic buttondown. My TNT pattern.

 

 

 

 

 

It's a little chilly for this! I'm retreating inside for more coffee and then heading off to work on the boat.

 

 

I haven't posted any boat progress lately. I'm currently sealing the hull with an epoxy clearcoat. The shop hovers around 50 degrees, so it's taking about 3 days for the epoxy to cure.

 

 

I hope all your winter projects, whatever they might be, are going well!

 

 

 

 

 

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Falling for Floral - Round 2

The floral trend continues in Milan and also here on the coast of Maine. I started this latest shirtmaking project with two lengths of fabric, one floral, the other a stripe. Each piece was adequate to make a shirt, but just barely. After adding some striped accents to the mostly floral shirt, I naturally don't have enough striped fabric to make a whole shirt. So I'm adding some floral touches here and there to make up for the lack of fabric.

 

 

 

Shirt two is sporting a floral inner collar stand and yoke, plus floral elbow patches.

 

 

 

Elbow patches are new territory for me, and I think these flowery ones are kind of fun. They add some much needed interest to what's a pretty bland striped shirt. Once I figured out where they had to be placed, it became clear that I would have to make little stubby sleeve plackets. Otherwise, the placket I usually use would have run over the elbow patches. And, yes, as you can see I'm terrible at making plackets match up. But I'm not losing any sleep over it.

 

 

Some goodies have arrived in the mail recently, so here's a sneak peek of what's in store for both shirts. I'm lifting a page out of Claudine's play book and venturing into the world of ombré dyeing. This should be fun. Wish me luck!

 

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Stop, Start, Stop, Start... And so it goes

It's been weeks since I've posted anything here. Things were moving ahead nicely on the velvet jacket. Maybe you remember? Unfortunately, my mom, who lives in a retirement community in New Hampshire, developed some pretty serious health problems. In response, I've been back and forth from my home in Maine almost weekly for the past month. What sewing I've accomplished has been "around the edges" of a pretty chaotic lifestyle. I did manage to get it hemmed, and the lining is completely finished. It really only needs buttonholes and buttons at this point.

I'm glad to report that mom's doing much better, and things are slowly returning to normal around here. Still, there's not much progress being made on the jacket. Why??? I got it into my head that I want to do handworked buttonholes. I blame the whole thing on Laura Mae and her gala extravaganza! Seriously, this woman is such an inspiration. Is there anything she doesn't have the courage to tackle? What would Laura Mae do? Heck, I've even gone out and bought 2 yards of silk organza because of her, even though I have NO idea what I'd do with it!

So here's the hold up.

 

 

In order to do the job properly, I've ordered a buttonhole chisel and keyhole punch. Unfortunately, they're on back order and I have no idea when to expect them.

 

In the meantime, I made a stab at it.....

 

 

OMG, how horrible is this!!!! Needless to say, I have a lot of practicing to do.

 

On a more positive note, I've been working on a new shirt. Maybe you've noticed, there seems to be a floral trend coming off the runways for Fall and Spring. Flowers are apparently appropriate year round.

 

So I'm jumping on the bandwagon! Plus, what guy doesn't need a new shirt?

 

For some reason shirts are easy to sew in little steps, so I've been working on this over the past three weeks. Sometimes I only have time to sit down and do one thing, say, sew a placket. Then it sits until I have time for the next one. Over time it comes together.

 

 

I'm using a cotton shirting that I picked up on sale at Denver Fabrics. Total fabric investment $13.82! It's been very easy to work with, and fun to match.

 

 

I used a contrasting stripe under the placket, inside the collar band and inside the cuffs.

 

 

But there's much more in store for this shirt. Now I have TWO unfinished projects!

 

 

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Give me Liberty..... Um, well, faux Liberty

Today, readers, we'll be traveling to merry old England and visiting the flagship store of Liberty of London. If I'm ever lucky enough to visit London, this is sure to be on the itinerary. Truly, this is a Mecca for the fabric obsessed. If you follow this blog, chances are that you fall into this category too.

Let's go inside, shall we?

Oh, my! This is what I would call a shopping experience. We're a long way from Kansas, and a long long way from Target. Apparently this installation was created for London Fashion Week. Spectacular. However, all this Tudor splendor comes at price.

I have been wanting a "little flowers" shirt for almost a year now. This is a very basic point collar men's shirt, with questionable matching at the front placket. Nice. It sells for £125 ( around $200 ). Pretty, yes......within my budget? Not on your life! I can't even justify the $80+ that the fabric alone would cost to make this shirt.

But all is not lost.

I was lucky to find this shirting on sale at Denver Fabrics. It's an Italian cotton, 36" wide, very finely woven with crisp printing. I ordered 3.5 yards at a $4.45 per yard. Score!

If I had not taken this picture I would never have noticed the subtle diagonal nature of this print. So much for just randomly cutting it out. I attempted to match the fronts and placket to preserve the diagonal effect. I've since read that the diagonal quality of the print is a hallmark of Liberty. Who knew? Certainly not me.

Here's a close up. These are all colors that work well for me.

Is it Liberty, or an imposter?

This is perhaps the best shirt I've ever made. I'm getting used to working with lighter weight fabrics. I've also given up my resistance to fusible interfacings. This shirt was interfaced with Pro-woven "shirt crisp" from FashionSewingSupply.com. I can't recommend it highly enough! It really gives the feel of a store bought shirt.

The matching isn't perfect, but good enough to preserve the flow of the pattern.

Final tally, not that it's that important...

Fabric $15.60, Buttons $5.25 = an "almost Liberty shirt" for $20.85

Clothes that I really love to wear .... Priceless!

I'm thinking I'll wear this for Thanksgiving this year. Speaking of which, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and joyful sewing!