The Big White Shirt - Burda 6908.

 I am back from my much needed mini-blog break.  I really needed it - for some reason I was really tired - as you can see from the photos in this post.  I'm starting to pick up energy again - I guess with life demands, energy for blogging will wax and wane from time to time.

Anyway, on to more important things than my energy levels for blogging - sewing :).

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I have had a yen to make a big, boyfriend style shirt for a long time.  I don't know why, but I don't think there has to be a why.  So, as I need to brush up on my shirt making technique, I decided to make Burda 6908:

Of course, one big advantage of this style of shirt is that there is no fitting needed.  It is big,baggy, ,unfitted and a shapeless straight up and down shape.  It also has slightly dropped shirt shoulders.

 I checked the measurements and decided to make size 8, which had a finished bust measurement of 42 inches, which I thought was more than enough - in fact, that is 8 inches larger than my bust.  As it turned out, it was the size was just right for my neck size.

As this shirt was really for the purpose of practicing technique, I decided to use a piece of white calico.   For house/garden garments, I am quite happy to wear calico - I save linen for out of the house garments.  And I would not refresh myself on how to do a collar stand and collar band on a piece of expensive linen.  And lets face it, practice costs time, resources and fabric, and I like something to wear at the end of the process.

And I also choose to use a cheap fabric when I have never used a pattern before or do not intend to make a muslin.  I would hate to make a pattern that I found I didn't like and use a piece of treasured and possibly much more expensive fabric.

I chose shirt A, and did not alter the pattern except for the sleeve length. As this is a hot weather shirt, shortened the sleeves to around my elbow - I do want some coverage.  And I inverted the back pleat, as I prefer that look.

And then I made it up.  A simple and straightforward process, and I could even remember how to do the collar and collar stand.

First of all, I will show you a close up of some of the shirt details:

The inverted pleat - I also topstitched the back yoke seam.

The shirt front, with pockets.

The collar and collar band

The hem.

Now, bear in mind this is a bit of cheap, cotton, calico, so I think that the results in a fairly rustic fabric are quite good.

Before I go further, I must also tell you that I set myself a challenge with the buttonholes.  For years I have done my buttonholes on a basic machine using operator skill.  It took ages, by the time I measured and practiced and then finally made them, with a lot of skill and concentration.  I used to have a sore neck for a few days afterwards.  I was grumbling to my husband about this, and told him that there were machines available that did this automatically, and he said that he would like to get one for me.  It took me a while to accept this offer, and of course I made sure I waited for a sale.  And this is the little electronic machine that was such a thoughtful gift:

After much procrastination, and perhaps even some trepidation, I finally decided to make buttonholes with this machine.  And bingo, lots of lovely buttonholes.  MAGIC.  I did have trouble with the collar stand buttonhole, as I anticipated - there is a lot more thickness there, and I thought the foot would not tolerate this area.  However, it did much of the buttonhole, and I just went over the missed area with my big machine, on a small, narrow zig-zag.  It's good to know, right from the start of using this machine, how to fix a mishap.  And it happened on a practice, calico shirt :).

Okay, back to the pictures of the shirt:

Front view - big and baggy and shapeless, just as the pattern is!

Well, this is just like the pattern - a real, man-style shirt.  I do think size 8 is quite big enough for me though.

I can also see why the models on the pattern envelope are all carefully positioned to make the shirt look a little more stylish.

And I can do that too:

Will I make this again?  I probably will, one day, but in a nice lightweight fabric.  I would also give it just a little bit of shaping through the side seams.

But for now, I have got this shirt out of my system..

I'll be back next weekend with another one of my makes:

But for now, goodbye to all my lovely followers, and have a happy and healthy week, wherever you are.

Sarah Liz