Monday 10 March 2014

Loud Kiwiana shirt Burda Style 03-2013-147

I am so pleased that my son has a penchant for loud shirts, as unfortunately I find sewing for males generally tends to the unbearably boring, or impossible interestingly challenging to both the seamstress and her precious sewing machine (kayak skirt anyone?), but a cheery fabric vastly improves this state of affairs. Who could be bored with busy Kiwis?

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This shirt is the result of some souvenir fabric shopping by my boy (well, he has to do something whilst his mother hangs about in these shops), barely moments (in fabric terms) after we got home from a rather nice family holiday to our next door neighbours in New Zealand.
This particular fabric was purchased because we did not manage to see a real ornothological Kiwi this trip, and he was a tad disappointed. This is entirely our fault for managing to see one on our previous trip, which was very lucky indeed.

The shirt, you may be surprised to hear, is from an entirely new-to-me pattern, as Burda kindly printed a larger size bog standard boy shirt pattern just in time to compensate for the pernacious effects of a growth spurt on my previously well used pattern from many years ago. The pattern, Burda Style 03-2013-147 has a collar with stand, contrast yoke, which I did not use, and long sleeves, which I also did not use, and a cut on button placket, which again I did not use. It is a nice slim cut, unlike Big 4 children and youth patterns, which is a good style to fit my nice extra-slim son. Your mileage may vary.

technical drawing from http://www.burdafashion.com/fr/Magazines/burda_Style


The only real difference from the previous bog standard smaller boy shirt pattern is the nifty buttoning pocket flap, which conveniently contains his public transport card in the otherwise uselessly small chest pocket which still seems to be taking up rather a lot of the actual chest (see above about slimness of boy).

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Burda has the pocket in a contrasting fabric in their version, with the flap in the main fabric, which I reversed, but I am inclined in retrospect to think I should have made the whole thing in one fabric - the Kiwis don't really need any complementing here, being sufficiently visually stimulating without any other distractions, but what is a loud shirt without some questionable pattern matching?.
Talking about pattern matching, I made no attempt to do this across any seams what-so-ever, which was strangely liberating, and I don't think it detracts too much from the appearance of the garment.
There is no doubt that I will be using this pattern again, Burda prints some great basics. I am wondering what interesting print I will be using for the next one.

11 comments:

velosews said...

While the fabric is loud, it's kinda not. It looks stylish to me.

Lyndle said...

Great shirt, great post. I live in NZ and though I have heard kiwi in the wild i have only seen them in zoos and in night tours of a bird sanctuary. Bush-coloured nocturnal birds with an excellent sense of smell and the natural paranoia that accompanies being flightless, are tricky to get close to.

Sharon said...

Great shirt and those kiwi's are amazing.

SewRuthie said...

Really great shirt!

Mary Nanna said...

Yes looking at your son's shirt I too have now seen more kiwis on him than in real life... super super cute.

Hen said...

Ha! With my husband the fanatic birdwatcher, I have seen two Kiwibirds in the wild and three in Kiwi-Houses, it's getting old. Still he doesn't want to go fabric shopping with me, finds it boring... Great shirt! Cool boy!

fabric epiphanies said...

I know a few loud Kiwis but none of them have feathers! I haven't seen a Kiwi except in wildlife parks. Probably because they are nocturnal. Great shirt and a nice memory of a lovely holiday.

Sue said...

Working with fun fabric always make the process more fun (I hate working with black). Great shirt - I love boy sewing when you can have fun with it.

Joy said...

Such a great shirt! I doubt many people here would be able to identify that creature, but it makes for a very fun shirt.

liza jane said...

I love that he has a penchant for loud shirts, too. Awesome!

Gail said...

Sweet little shirt. I love the mix of fabrics.