The Shirt is Done!

Hallelujah, friends, my color block shirt is finished!  Well, almost.  I still have to hem the bottom and add buttons and buttonholes, but it will only have three of each, plus the cuffs of course.  And a bit of pressing.  But I couldn't wait to share it with you.

As you already know, I have been consumed by this shirt -- pretty remarkable when you consider the size of the shirt relative to the size of me.   I've come close to ruining this garment at least three times, and somehow each time I managed to save it.  I guess it was meant to be.



It won't surprise you to know that, now that I've managed to squeeze an entire second shirt out of my $35 worth of fabric (two-and-a-half yards@ $14 per), my purchase no longer seems like such an extravagance.

I don't think I've ever had so little fabric left over from a project: just tiny scraps cut up into even tinier pieces.  The inside yoke is actually black cotton I had in my stash.



I know a few of you were hoping I'd stick with the caftan idea, but I'm not really the caftan type; I wanted a shirt I'd really wear.   Do you like the contrasting cuffs?

The back diagonal was supposed to run in the other direction but whatever.

I tossed and turned last night trying to decide what kind of collar I wanted, and I ended up doing a standard collar and collar stand (as opposed to a camp collar like you'd find on a vintage bowling shirt).  The neckline was already a bit low on my neck (hence the caftan look), and I thought a camp collar, which lays relatively flat, would make the neck of the shirt look too big.  As you can see, the inside collar stand and the underside of the button placket are done in the contrasting red.





I could have made the outside placket red too, but I didn't want to overdo the color blocking.  I like it fine as-is, though the placket doesn't pop.

If you're going to the Pattern Review party tomorrow at Elliott Berman, I'll be the one wearing this shirt -- just pick that guy out.



Two quick questions:

1) Red buttons or standard white -- or other?

2) Should I reinforce the diagonal seams with "Snug Hug" or twill tape, or is the fact that they're stitched to each other enough?  (Plus, the seams aren't at stress points.)

Thanks for your encouragement through this project and have a great day, everybody!