Deadline December Vogue 8096 Bicycle shirt version 2

After I foolishly gave my husband his Christmas present early. Mary Nanna commented that she hoped I wouldn't have to give him something else. Of course not! I thought, but as Christmas drew closer, the thought of him not having something to unwrap on Christmas day was making me feel bad, so I made up the other fabric I had ordered from Spoonflower at the same time.


I enjoyed making this shirt, as I gave considerable reign to my tendency to overembellish - something I generally have to restrain when making man clothes.

That is a chain machine embroidery stitch, being topical and holding the placket inside down most effectively.


These are the cuff buttons, with a little bullion stitch hand embroidery, which no one will ever see, as my husband will wear this shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

So here is the flat felled seam on the sleeves, which will be constantly visible.

Unfortunately I was not nearly so impressed with this fabric as I was with the first bicycle shirt.
The fabric is an off white, and does not have as pleasant a hand as the other piece. In addition, the print is off grain, and as the print is rather large, this was an issue in pattern matching.

I chose to match at the centre back yoke, and let the other wheels be a little off, which I think looks OK. I did I kept the back pleats at the sides, as shown in the pattern, rather than in the centre, which I generally prefer. I used the same central only matching technique with the sleeves at the yoke seam. At the front, I matched the wheels across the placket, so I hope the fronts being off grain does not affect the hang of the shirt too much.

I topstitched using my hand cranked Singer 28. It has a beautiful straight stitch, and made the topstitching very easy.

I used a black and white pinstriped shirting cotton from Michael's fabric for the collar and cuff contrast, with self fabric for the placket and cuff interfacing, and fusible shirt interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply for the collar and stand.


Off topic, I took the photographs on our back verandah, which is at canopy level for our Lilli-Pilli trees, in fruit at the moment. This fig bird was eating the Lilli-Pillies 2 metres away from me.

Does this look like a Christmas card to you?
It looked even better when the bird had 3 berries in its beak, matching its cheek plumage perfectly.