Bert can’t seem to find a pair of puttee-styled socks.
I never got the joke of Bert’s sweater when I was a kid, but now I think it’s really great. I’d make one like this for myself, but vertical stripes are a pain to do.
Here it is: my first shirt of the summer! I cut this shirt from the pattern I made over Christmas break, so it’s virtually the same as the ones I made at that time, with the notable exception of dropping the neckline by about 1” in the front.
The fabric is Spechler Vogel Textiles Orange Chambray (60-in.) from Sew to Speak (purchased for $8/yd). I’m not sure quite how much I ended up using since I used some scraps of the same fabric for another project last year. The buttons are expensive genuine-pearl buttons from Banasch’s Fabrics in Cincinnati. They are all a little differently-shaped and differently-colored and are completely worth the price.
So, this is definitely my best shirt to date. I’m becoming very comfortable sewing . The fabric is lovely, but the finished product. I used the fusible, woven, 100% cotton lightweight interfacing from Banasch’s (the same kind I’ve been using in bow ties). In hindsight the interfacing is heavier than I would have liked. I’m not sure how to handle this going forward.
I need to shore up my pattern in a few places (specifically the breast and yoke), and the sleeves could stand to be a quarter-inch longer. But overall I’m very proud of the product.
I’ve been planning to make a bunch of shirts this summer, so why not make it into a kind of game? So: I’m going to make one shirt every week this summer, except for the odd weeks here and there where I’ll be traveling. And in an effort to better document my work, I’m going to post some photos and words here every week, once I finish a shirt. Yeah! are you ready? Tomorrow is shirt number one.
NYCTaper just posted our Mercury Lounge set from last week. It’s a very good recording.
Photo by the excellent Elizabeth Weinberg
The recording is indeed very good! And the setlist is fantastic. Best of all, though, is the way JV runs the show. It’s more like a giant party than a concert. Highly recommended!
