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Hello everyone,

Here is a shirt I actually sewed in January 2016 for my little brother who lives in Switzerland. He spent Christmas with us and I offered to make him a shirt using McCalls M6044.

I took him fabric shopping – on a tangent -I honestly do not understand why he didn’t LOVE fabric shopping – we walked into B&M Fabrics and literally 2 seconds later he just pointed at a fabric and he was like “that one” (literally 2 seconds in the shop!!!!). “Have a look around and see what else is there – there are loads of lovely fabrics.” I said with a big enthusiastic smile across my face.

 

No, I like that one.

But you can’t know that you absolutely like that one because you haven’t looked at the others – plus we have 3 more shops to hit up

Needless to say, recognising the same pattern that was repeated in our childhood, I could see him digging in and being stubborn just cause I was telling him what to do. I retreated, puffed out my cheeks and exhaled.

Ok, sure”  I was really proud of myself – felt like I was the bigger person and congratulated myself. Really I was. But that didn’t stop me dragging him around to the rest of the shops in the off chance that he might see something else he liked. I may have also bought one of two fabrics as well.

So that’s how we ended up with this fabric – a pale muted cotton. I’d say it’s a medium weight cotton which was ok for the shirt. Its not the best fabric I have sewn with but its not the worst either.

I had to trace the small size for him, of which I made a toile. At the toile stage, I took it in at the waist as he likes his shirts figure hugging. I also lengthened it by an inch because that’s what he wanted. He also didn’t like the collar which he felt was too big fo his style and I redrew the upper collar angle to what you see in the pictures.

McCalls M6044 is so easy and fast to sew. I sewed flat felled seams everywhere to give it a professional look. My little brother is the founder and CEO of his own biomechatronic company and he has to look professional.

Unfortunately, he had returned to Switzerland by the time I finished the shirt but he gave permission for my OH to model it before I mailed it.

I had forgotten about this project until the other day when I was sorting out our 2016 digital files. So here is my OH in a shirt that is one size too small;  I think he did a wonderful job of posing in a shirt that really is not a colour or print he’d ever pick for himself.

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McCalls M6044

 

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McCalls M6044

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Flat felled seams……LIKE A BOSS!

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Even the sleeve seam is flat felled.

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This pattern does not have a tower placket – I add one based on a template

If I had to be perfectly honest, I didn’t enjoy sewing this as much because I was riddled with anxiety throughout the process. I was worried about whether I’d make something good enough. Still, I did my best and that’s what matters at the end of the day.

 

Writing this post did make me confront one of the uncomfortable reasons I personally avoid sewing for others outside of my kids and OH – I still don’t feel like I can sew garments good enough for them (hypothetical recipient of my sewn projects) to forgo an RTW option. Like they would only wear it around me to please me rather than be truthful and I couldn’t stand that. It’s crazy – I am so insecure I haven’t even asked my brother if he liked the shirt because I am scared of the answer. (Although I don’t think this fear is unfounded given that, though we speak regularly, he hasn’t brought it up either). The reality is that I shouldn’t think like that. Readers, I have a huge flaw. Any ideas of how I can get past this? Tough love welcome.

On that note, thank you for stopping by. Happy sewing all!

Peace and love,

Hila