Although I have been assured that this is a highly desirable birthday present, it was a somewhat unsatisfying gift giving process. This may have had something to do with supplying only the $. (I had to Google plasma cutting, looks nasty to me, other peoples' hobbies can be incomprehensible...)
This has displayed to me that in my case, sewing a gift has selfish elements, mostly to do with giving myself warm fuzzies.
Being rather partial to thinking well of myself, I sewed my husband a proper birthday gift, being something handmade and one-of-a-kind.
See the nice shirt? It is my usual Vogue 8096 pattern, made according to David Page Coffin's Shirtmaking book, flatfelled to within and inch of its life, and with topstitching via my handcranked Singer circa 1933, which has a perfect straight stitch. I am so lucky.
It has lovely parallel stripes at the front yoke seam....
I fiddled about to make fancy back pleats, which is a nice change for me.
I lined up the plackets so the stripes matched, a bit like jigsaw puzzles.I can almost see why patchwork is appealing.
Look! a contrast inner collar stand and amusing initial labelling ;)
Did you notice there is no man inside this shirt?
I have given up on photography torture of my husband.
Is it a bad thing that this makes me less inclined to sew for him? Blogging definitely influences my sewing.
Here is another thing I sewed for him, on special order, which is much more virtuous sewing. Just imagine that this on a man's head instead of charmingly applied to a paint tin. I know you all have excellent imaginations.
I am patting myself on the back for this one. This strange object is a merino jersey under-cycling-helmet head warmer and sun protector. He asked that I make it for cold morning rides - to replace his anti-sunburn caps worn during summer cycling.I made it about 2 months ago, actually I made 2 of them, and he has been promising to model it ever since. Hmmmm.
We might as well get lots of dull sewing done in one post.
New ironing board cover
Elastic drawstring cord and old towel for padding, untrimmed because I had not got the overlocker set up.
It is prettier than the last one, but I'm glad I have some fun sewing coming up.
Stashbusting statistics
Various merino jersey scraps
2m of cotton quilting fabric about 2009
3m of cotton shirting 2011
15 comments:
You get double dose of warm fuzzy wife virtue - the loving handmade present and the weird boring one that gave-the-giver-less. The shirt yoke and cuffs are very impressive, and so is the stashbusting. Can you count the old towel in stashbusting?
That shirt is just perfect. Very inspiring work. I am in the process of making a shirt for my better half and I will be very happy if it turns out even half as good as yours. You have a very lucky husband.
Beautiful work on the shirt! It looks impeccably made.
Love that shirt. Great look on the cuffs. Gorgeous.
Beautiful shirt and love the stripe matching and contrasts.
I'd be interested to know if you followed a pattern for the merino caps, or drafted them yourself. My husband is a bald cyclist, and I have a few merino scraps that are too small to do anything meaningful for me, but would be perfect for this.
And I'm always "buying" obscure bits of kit for birthdays, too.
Paola, I copied the summer woven versions from a commercial cap - link to a photo of my reverse engineered pattern in the post above, and these new merino versions are sized down for knit, and also sewn together at the back, rather than tied. I am happy to trace my "pattern", but it is rather rough. Just let me know if you are interested and I will post it to you.
The shirt is gorgeous - and to think he picked the fabric out himself! And I love your cheery new ironing board cover.
Great post, enjoyable to read, wry and informative. And hey, great results, too! Love the shirt BTW (am looking up plasma cutter as we speak)
Stunning shirt, Karen!
The shirt is PERFECTION. Absolutely precise.
I'm impressed that you manage to work up enough enthusiasm for the other projects. Truly a labour of love ;-)
Posts of wonderful men's shirts make me feel like a very selfish seamstress.
Beautifully drafted shirt. You are inspiring... I need to make a shirt and replace my ironing board cover. But I am n.t contemplating a cycling head warmer. Not yet anyway. Perhaps I need to avoid your evil influence and stop reading your blog posts!
-Sewingelle
That is really a gorgeous shirt. My boyfriend is lucky to get novelty boxers out of me. Your stripe matching is truly remarkable!
I wear my wool jersey helmet liner every day in the cold weather. Such a useful thing to sew!
It's a wonderful looking shirt - so many great details! Your stripe matching is really impressive, and the cuffs are excellent and unusual. I'm sure it'll be well appreciated - surely (but maybe secretly) more than a plasma cutter???
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