Inspiration...Button Down Shirt

 I have found an interesting button down shirt.  It is just a little bit different.  Here is a glimpse:

This is the Button-Down Striped Cotton Shirt by Lafayette 148 New York.  Price tag: $598.00.  Details: Approximately 28-inches long, spread collar, button front, long sleeves, button cuff, chest pocket, back yoke with stitched box pleat, shirt tail hem, relaxed fit, cotton, unlined.

Here is a glimpse at the back:

The back pleat would be so easy to duplicate.  Just add the needed amount at the fold and mark it.  Note that this is stitched all the way to the hem and then pressed flat.  It is a small detail but so easy to change the look of the shirt.

The other detail that is a bit different on the shirt is the collar stand.  If you look closely, you can see that there are two buttons instead of the normal one button.  I am not sure about how to duplicate that.  I am fairly certain that there is more to it than just sewing an extra buttonhole/button. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.  I have been known to sit and play with this type of item.

As for the pattern, my standard go to button down shirt:

This is the Liesl & Co Classic Shirt.  I have sewn this shirt many times and it is a great pattern.  Things to change would be not to add the button/buttonhole to sleeve placket and add the pleat down the back of the shirt.

Hope you are inspired to create something wonderful.

Happy Stitching!

1st Classic Shirt....

 The fitted pattern for my Liesl & Co Classic Shirt had gone missing and it took a couple of weeks to locate it.  The first shirt for this season, I am using a stash fabric:

The original post where I discussed using this fabric is here.  While I was pressing it, I found this:

The dreaded flaw marker.  Thankfully, the flaw is fairly close to the edge.  Unfortunately, I was not informed that this was a fabric with a flaw.  I did carefully iron this to make sure that was the only one.  This is the only obvious flaw.  There is a second marker shown in the picture but I could not locate another flaw.  I will try to cut around this section of the fabric.

The actual cutting out of this shirt was a real adventure due to my kittens.  I chose to cut out in a single layer and the kittens seemed to find pins interesting.  They were taking them out almost as fast I was pinning.  It was only certain pins that they found interesting.  The first night was very frustrating but the second day I was able to finish the cutting out.

The adventures continued as the sewing.  Kittens stitching their head through the machine harp.  They continued pulling out every pin that looked interested.  Then, they sewing machine needle.  There was more than once that I thought one of them was going to get a paw under the needle but I was able to thwart every attempt.  

The very last thing that happened to this project is I ran out of thread.  I did start with a new spool of thread but obviously a small spool is not big enough for a button down shirt with lots of topstitching.  Thankful, the local JoAnn Fabrics had the matching thread.  Since I was at JoAnn's, I went ahead and looked at buttons.  It was truly a pitiful selection.  Obviously, the closest store to me is not looking for garment sewers.  There is another nearby store.  It is only a little further away.  Maybe it is time that I investigated it.

Running out of thread kinda put my sewjo off for a few days but I finally finished it.  Here is the result:

I am really happy with the shirt and hope that it will be worn a lot.  There are ton of mistakes but that happens with almost everything that I make anymore.  

On to the next project.

Happy Stitching!