Negroni in Teal

And next we have the lovely Mr Cherrypix modelling his latest Negroni in Teal, accessorised with complementary orange cat.

Mr Cherrypix has wonderfully long arms (and gives the best hugs)…but shirts with sleeves long enough for him are often waaaay too wide in the body. So, I decided to try to make him some casual shirts, with added sleeve length.

Enter the Negroni Shirt pattern by Colette. What a great first-time mens’ shirt pattern! It’s wonderfully drafted and the detailed instruction book made my first foray into collars, cuffs, yolk, flat felling (and more) a real pleasure. The fit is more European (narrower) through the body, yet still wide across the shoulders. All I needed to do was increase the sleeve and cuffs length slightly.

I’m learning to ‘blend’ interfacing types, in different areas. Both collar and cuffs have medium-weight sew-in interfacing. I am fast becoming a fan of sew-in interfacing, rather than fusible. It just feels better, to my way of thinking. [Mind you, I used a glue stick to baste the collar/cuff fabric and interfacing together!] I did use fusible interfacing for the front placket – it’s not as stiff as the collar/cuffs interfacing, which makes for a softer body section.

I love the edgestitching…made possible thanks to my most favourite of sewing feet, the Ditch Quilting Foot S (this is the one for Janome top-loading machines, other brands have similar feet). You can move the needle super close to the edge and maintain an even distance by running the ‘rudder’ along the fabric edge. It’s great for topstitching too!

The plackets were easier to make than expected. You just need to be very precise with folding and stitching. I drew lines with a fading ink marker, which made it a lot simpler.

I also learned the ”burrito” yoke method which very neatly encloses all unfinished edges inside the yoke. A mind-bender at first, but if you just ‘go with it”, it works beautifully. Colette’s clear instructions are particularly good on this step.

And I had some more practice with flat felled seams. Still need to work on these. It’s a challenge to maintain an even width between the seams.  They also seem to pucker, no matter what you do to press them…due to the fact that you are enclosing a larger area in a smaller one. This puckering seems to occur on RTW shirts too, so perhaps that’s just the way it goes?? I’d love any tips/suggestions on how to reduce the puckers, if it’s possible!?

The fabric is a lovely crisp 100% cotton from Spotlight. I love the colour on Mr Cherrypix…as well as the fit. A shirt that he can comfortably wear cuffed! (Mind you, he still tends to roll the sleeves up, which looks great too).

There will be more of these hanging in Mr C’s wardrobe!