Next Up

While you all were distracted by temari balls, I was quietly working away on the next item on my sewing list, Hubby's long-sleeved guitar shirt.  I spent a good while yesterday working on it, and got quite a bit done; all that remains is to do the collar, buttonholes and buttons:

Checkout that ray of sunshine!
It's 53 degrees in Chicago today!

I've been keeping track of the steps I do on the sewing list page.  I traced the pattern on Sunday, cut the fabric on Tuesday, and made and attached the pocket on Wednesday.  The pocket was a little tricky; although the pattern repeat looks uniform, it's really a little random, so I wasn't able to match it up exactly:

Hubby has short arms, so I did my first sleeve shortening.  I wasn't very scientific about it though, in that I didn't measure his arms or the pattern piece.  I just shortened them by a half inch, and I think it will be enough.

The sleeves went in differently from what I'm used to.  On all the blouses I've made for myself, the sleeves have been set in, using easing stitches at the sleeve head. This one didn't use any gathering for easing, and the sleeve head is sewn to the armscye first, and then the entire underarm and side seam is done in one go.   To help keep things lined up and neat, I hand-basted the sleeves in before machine stitching, and I'm very pleased with the result:

This pattern is McCall's 6044.  I think it's pretty similar in style to the Colette Negroni shirt.  I made Hubby some short-sleeved shirts about 12 years ago with a different pattern which had a more relaxed fit; this one is slightly shaped on the sides - a more modern look, I think.

I've been working slowly and carefully on this shirt, and so far I'm really pleased with the results.  I've been feeling that I've turned a corner a little bit with my sewing, at least in terms of attitude.  Looking at all the things I made in 2011 for my sewing round-up made me think about each of them, and I realized that the pieces I love most are the ones I really spent a lot of care and attention on.  I've been thinking that this year my goal is to have the attitude that I want each piece I make to be the best thing I ever made, at least in its workmanship.  I want to focus on quality, rather than quantity.  The feeling of finishing something is great, but that can be deflated a little bit if the quality is not up to snuff.

This ties in with my Seamless Pledge too.  I've always loved good quality, well-made clothes, but I've felt for the last couple of years that the quality of workmanship in the things I've bought from some of my favorite stores has declined.  I'm feeling less and less willing to shell out money for something that I could make a better version of myself.  So - there you have it:  my two cents!

I've been doing knitting this week too.  I started two new items from my knitting list.  Can you guess which?  I'll be back with those tomorrow!