Michael Models His New Flannel Shirt!

Readers, the shirt is done and Michael loves it.  I think the color really suits him, don't you?  It fits nicely and it's super soft and snuggly.







As you know, I picked up this gorgeous tattersall plaid flannel at Mood.  The quality is superior to what I normally sew with.  It sells for $12/yd, but it's 60" wide and, though I bought 2 1/2 yards (I'm making boxer shorts with what's left), just 2 would have sufficed.



This project would no doubt have gone faster if I hadn't made so much of it on my Singer 66 treadle.  I think I'll save the treadle for easier projects or until I address that stitch issue I described yesterday.  I think the bobbin area could use a cleaning.

I finished the shirt -- primarily collar and cuffs -- on my Singer 201.  I serged the side seams and then stitched them down to make a faux flat-felled seam.  I also serged the (straight) hem and stitched it up.  I only serge shirt seams when I'm using a pillowy fabric like flannel.

Here's the inside side seam.



The outside looks like this:



The hem, from the inside:



And the outside:



Close-ups of the collar:





The cuffs have two buttons and, for the first time ever, I placed a button on the sleeve placket (which, along with the collar and yoke, I cut on the bias).





Overall, I'm happy with the shirt.  Being the sewing obsessive I am, however, and knowing that many of you are too, I'll share my newest blog feature: "What I'd Do Differently Next Time." Skip this if it annoys you, but I can't help myself!

1) I wish I'd done the buttonholes in a thread that matched the blue, rather than the gray.  I'm not wild about the way they pop. 



2) This flannel was rather shifty, and the back -- which is normally cut on the fold though I did it with the fabric open flat precisely to avoid this problem -- is ever-so-slightly off grain.  You'd have to look hard to notice (despite it being a grid), but I know.  I could have inspected the back piece more carefully after cutting, or when attaching the yoke; I didn't.



3) I put a lot of care into my cuffs, but I could have distributed the sleeve gathers a little more carefully.  This was one of those tasks that, when I needed to do it, I was running out of steam.  Normally I just make a small pleat but the pattern has you make gathers and I figured, why not?







I think that's about it.  BTW, I made this with vintage Seventies Butterick 4712, a nicely drafted, slim-fitting shirt pattern.



Lest you think Michael paraded around the neighborhood in December in his shirtsleeves, here's his outfit.



You can see all my flannel shirt project pics, including more glamorous shots of Michael, here.

Hope your weekend has been a good one.  As for me, I think it's time for a glass of wine.

See you all soon!