Baby Blue for Real Men

The most surprising result of this project is not a reasonably well-fitting shirt, but the following: if you sew for others, you get to look at what you made all the time. Not just when you happen to look in the mirror. This is an aspect I hadn't thought of! Ofcourse this is only a good thing when you're satisfied with what you made. But otherwise, it's an extra advantage over sewing for yourself. Anyway, moving on to the long awaited shirt! The fabric is a medium weight knit jersey. Stef was a bit surprised it was he who picked this colour last year, but I think it suits him well.



First I tried making my own pattern from an existing shirt but failed miserably. So I used the Föhr pattern from Farbenmix (thanks for the tip, me.anna!) because I liked the shoulder patches (or how do you call these) and the different options you have with sleeves, neckline and pockets. I already knew what fitting issues I needed to tackle. This is what most of Stef's RTW shirts look like:

On fitting the Föhr pattern, I noticed the same problem: pulling at the armholes. I lowered the armholes by a good inch (meaning I also had to re-cut the sleeves). Other than that, the fit was pretty good. I didn't notice the folds hanging down from his chest though, come to think of it it could be due to the fact that I just enlarged the armhole, instead of also lowering the shoulder at the same time. Judging by this post, that could be it anyway. What do you think?

I went for the V neck because these suit him best. I spied the best technique over at Male Pattern Boldness: making the bias strip overlap seemed to be the easiest method, and I agree it looks more elegant.



I'm really pleased with this first attempt at a men's pattern! And, not unimportant, Stef is too. It's even his new favourite shirt! And I liked sewing for him much more than I thought I would. I felt confident with my skills and I felt I could handle potential criticism from my 'customer'. Both these things are the reason why I postponed this for a year. I knew Stef wasn't going to wear it just to please me. An honest customer is better in the end, so I think it was right for me to wait untill I could handle it. And now, to my own surprise, I'm already looking forward to the next Steftember project!