I’ve had this project on my wishlist for a while now.  You may have noticed a drawing on this shirt in my “Now Sewing” section of the side bar for some time (since December at least).  Sometimes you can’t rush a project, but with the cooler weather approaching, I finally got around to making it.

 

The design was from an image I’d seen while snoop shopping.  It is a loose fitting shirt with a collar and partial button placket.  No darts.  Front and back yokes which extend into sleeves with cuffs.  Looks quite simple and I thought it would work well with the striped linen that I bought last summer.

Sleeve draft

If you have been following my blog, you’ll know that I’d made a bodice sloper recently, so my plan was to draft the top from the sloper.  Converting the sloper to being dartless was fairly easy.  The placket and collar was adapted from the initial shirt that I’d made.  But it was the sleeves that worried me.  I’ve always had trouble with the fit of raglan sleeves using commercial patterns.  Theoretically, drafting my own should give a better fit, but there is always that nagging doubt.  Hence the reason for putting off this project.

To get the pattern for the sleeve, I used the method for converting a set-in sleeve to a raglan sleeve, but rather than cut the bodice toward the neckline, I’ve cut it horizontally to form a yoke.  The sleeve was then slit to still have a set-in sleeve style at the underarm. There was a little tweaking of the seam position to work with the stripe widths.

pattern cuts like this…

cut pieces with chevron effect along the centre seam …

 

and the final shirt.

 

I like the fit at the shoulder although the fabric has stretched a little on the bias section of the sleeve.  I’d washed the linen 4 or 5 times before I sewed it.  It had softened a little but is still very springy and with the loose weave, it was easy for the fabric to distort as I worked with it.  Thankfully it all came together rather well.

 

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Sewing Project Score card