All About My Son Week - The Shirt, Part One

Thank you for the compliments on the jacket; I wore it yesterday as a test and it was exactly what I wanted, warm and nice looking.  It was easy enough to wear under a parka and just right for around the house.  Perfect for the cold weather.  Believe me, it has been cold around here the past few days, with yesterday below zero for most of the day.

Now that the burgundy jacket is complete, I will be sewing this week for my son.  A few weeks ago I promised him a shirt, so we went fabric shopping and he picked out this print:

Almost every one of his shirts for school is plaid, so he wanted a print instead of another plaid or a solid. 

His previous shirt from the size 8 pattern was fitting perfectly, so we decided that it would be best if I made a size 10.  That meant he needed to pick out a model that included a size 10.  He chose this one from an older Patrones:

This one is a good choice, there's no pocket and it is pretty simple.  You wouldn't be able to find the pocket with this print anyway and simple is better to let that print not only shine but take center stage. 

The only problem with this pattern, and one that I've noticed with other Patrones shirts that I've made for my son is the collar and collar stand.  Both are drafted too large, specifically too tall, making the collar look like it belongs on an adult shirt rather than a child's.  When I was tracing the pattern, I kept looking at the size of the collar and knew I'd better compare it with a current RTW shirt and double check the size.

Sure enough, the collar, as drafted is too big.  You can actually see the plaid collar through the tissue in the above photo.  Here's the pattern piece with the correction, note how much smaller the collar is. 

The other problem with the collar was the point at which the collar attached to the collar stand.  I checked this against the RTW, too.  In this case it was too far back from the edge.   The collar needed to attach to the stand closer to the curve.   In the photo below, you can see that I've moved point B closer to the curve, over the buttonhole, rather than to the left of the buttonhole.  I went back then and double check the collar size to make sure it would fit between the new markings on the stand.  The collar stand was also too tall, and that was easily corrected. 

It sounds like a lot of fixes and takes more time to explain than actually do.  It is good to compare a new pattern to either a TNT pattern (that's a good reason to have one!) or RTW if you're unsure.  If something looks off, chances are it is.  With that done, I got everything cut out and have been working on the construction. It looks like this one will be done tomorrow, so I'll show you all those details tomorrow.


Parting Shot:  New Week, New Shelf.  Wellie is back to hanging out in the linen closet while I clean the bathroom.  This time he went up a shelf to the sheets to hide out, rather than hanging out with towels.  I almost didn't see him this time before shutting the door, either.