My son is a real problem when it comes to dreaming up
presents for him. He doesn’t want to
accumulate “stuff” because he pulls stakes and moves quite often, and all his
belongings have to fit into the back of his truck. He’s at the other end of the country, and
sending “stuff” very often costs far more than the “stuff” is worth. There’s not a whole lot I can get for him
that he actually needs. And so – there are
clothes… made by Mum. Come to think of
it, he probably doesn’t need much in the way of clothes, either, because he
mostly wears whatever goes for a uniform of whatever kitchen he’s presently
working in. This explanation is really
getting far too long. Suffice it to say,
I put out “feelers” before Christmas, and this year (or is would it now be considered
last year?? – whatever!) there was a hint of enthusiasm over another Victorian
shirt.
I made one about some two years ago. That was a
sort of trial run. This version is a fine cream cotton.
(Probably will never meet up with an iron
again in its life, but here it is nicely pressed – ready to be folded up into a
box and get crushed, and then I wonder why I spent so much time steaming and
pressing.) According to the pattern,
the “slit”/vent is actually the underarm seam.
This puts the button on the cuff on the underside of the wrist. Not very comfortable if you’re leaning your
wrist on a table to write, or (more probably) on a laptop to type. So, shirt No. 2 also got an actual vent at the
side of the sleeve. This time I did not spend a lot of time
toiling over an actual placket, but took the easy way out as you can see.
Apparently, this is a comfortable style.
(Certainly is roomy with all those pleats!)
I sort of like the front details of this shirt – wouldn’t mind one for
myself, though I’ll probably have to graft the details I want onto one of my shirt patterns. Even at the smallest size of this pattern, I
think I’d get tangled up and lost in too much fabric. The construction of the front is a little
confusing, or may-be I just don’t get something. It was confusing the first time around, and I
obviously didn’t remember a thing a year later, because it was confusing all
over again this time. At the end, I did
have a clean finish on the inside of the button placket as well as the
outside. I keep telling myself that it
doesn’t matter how you get there, just so long as the end result looks good.
