The Happy Father's Day/Birthday Shirt!

I finished my dad's Hawaiian-style shirt yesterday, just in time for his trip to Hawaii.  I'm not going this year....Staying home to babysit the dogs.

I used this pattern again:

This time around I used a strange cotton fabric.  I say strange because it is coarser than gauze, but wrinkles like it.  The yarns are loosely woven and pretty thick, visible to the naked eye.  It is printed with some unbleachable black pigment, which was really good news as I had some laundry issues with the fabric.  When I bought it ($1/yd swapmeet find, of course) we also purchased some beautiful cotton sateens.  I decided since they were all light in color, I would wash them together.  BIG MISTAKE! One of the fabric pieces was cheap-o and bled its entire printed design onto everything else.  My dad's shirt material had light blue splotches all over it.  I washed it multiple times then decided to do a bleach test on a scrap of fabric.  It worked, the fabric was washed again with bleach, and it came out all shiny and new! Very soft too!

I was really busy with the last few weeks of school so I did not have time to make the shirt before his birthday.  Oh well, I had it finished a few days after Father's Day.  Enough of my chatting...here's the shirt:

 Oops.  Looks like my dad forgot to button the bottom button.  I made the same fitting adjustments as I did with the first.  I did not do the "burrito roll" method, but opted to follow the directions.  I only got confused by one part, the first step of attaching the the yoke facing.  The pictures were a little unclear, but I managed to put it together correctly.  I just recommend reading very carefully.

My dad being a goof ball:

And showing his muscles (He didn't have time to flex...my camera battery died at the beginning of the photoshoot and we were rushed).

I am pleased with the shirt and I think my dad likes it too.  I'm happy I followed the directions because  hand-sewing the yoke facing was really relaxing.


My dirdl is almost done.  Not loving, it but it was fast and really cheap! (Like $1.25 to make). I look too hippy in it, and I don't have any hips!  I think I'm going to make myself something else before I start on my sister's Michael Starr knock-off tops again. They are boring.  I want to make V1247.  I already have the fabric for the top and skirt picked out.

1 Year Blogoversary!

April 23rd was my Blogoversary!  I couldn't post the day of because it was a whirlwind of a day with an out-of-town wedding to attend and the Boyfriend was a groom's man.

Lately I've been a bad blogger.  No posts in forever, and nothing all that exciting to show.

The Boyfriend's birthday was this past week and since I wasn't in town then, I brought up all his birthday presents with me for the wedding.  I made him a cotton/linen shirt with the Negroni Pattern.  It actually fits him really well, but the short sleeves were too long so I need to hem them and then mail it back to him.  I never got a picture of him in the shirt!!! AHHH!  I remembered at 5:30am when we were packing up the car to go the airport.  :(

I'll get pictures one of these days and take pictures of the shirt when the sleeves are hemmed and it is pressed.

I'll have a full review of the pattern later, but overall it was a great pattern to sew.  It went together beautifully and the construction of the yoke was interesting. Another burrito method, but slightly different. I'm definitely going to make it again for a winter plaid shirt.  My dad might get a version of it too.  He tried on the Boyfriend's shirt, and although it was a bit too small I could tell that the larger size would fit him well.  Much better than the Victoria Jones pattern I made for him for X-mas.

So I've decided that I will definitely have a vintage pattern giveaway when I reach 75 Followers. It didn't quite coincide with the blogoversary, but oh well!

I want to thank everyone who has continued to read and comment on the blog.  I read every comment even if I don't respond and they all mean so much to me.  I love the sewing/craft blog community so much and am so thankful to be accepted into it.  :)

Thanks to CCInspirations for becoming my latest follower!

And of course, my Pearl:

The "deer-in-headlights" look.  

Hawaiian Shirt Help!

Can anyone help me with this problem?

I hate the back/underarm shirt wrinkle!  I started working on Victoria Jones pattern 220 for my Dad's Christmas present:

I made a muslin and its a little small.  That is easily fixed, but I hate the back arm wrinkle.  The picture above is actually from a RTW shirt my dad owns.  The muslin did the same thing.  I read somewhere that it is because the armsyce is set in too low because of the drop shoulder.  

What do I do to fix this? Is it even necessary? My dad has a rounded back too. Could this be amplifying the problem?  How would I fix this in a shirt with a back yoke?

 I realized that I see this men's shirt wrinkle everywhere, on mostly hawaiian style shirts.  My Sketching I instructor has the same problem :)  

Any thought/comments would be most appreciated.  I need to get this thing made before Christmas.  He's been waiting for this shirt since our trip to Maui in July when we bought this fabric:

The top fabric.

Thanks Blog Readers!