Flushed with success from previous efforts, I offered Mark another shirt. I flung open the doors to my cupboard and said: “pick a fabric, any fabric”, and he picked… (drumroll here) flowers! Tiny pink dimity printed flowers in a beautiful cotton lawn! Really? Are you sure?
Oh well, at least I won’t have stripes to match! Did I say that? Well, when I hung the fabric on the line to dry, a definite stripe effect caught my eye. Laying the fabric on the table and it is obvious that it not only is striped one way, but also the other. I am making a shirt out of checked fabric – gaah!!
Oh well, nothing ventured and all that. I began making up the shirt, only to have little brat (aka Archie) telling me that Dad would never wear this shirt and that he’s only not telling me so as to not hurt my feelings. I pondered the situation and thought that I might wear the shirt if it came to it (miles too big for me, but so is half my wardrobe, so what’s new?).
I used grey/green topstitching to make it a bit more manly and eschewed the normal style of shirt button for some tough looking green ones. I think it looks pretty good, and I’m happy to demonstrate Mark wearing it!
You’ll note that Mark is posing with a hammer sculpture – an object very appropriate to his hobbies. This is in the same park where I posed with the quick unpick thingy – Mason Gardens for any locals interested.
I used KwikSew 3422 again which is fast becoming a family favourite.
I did start out trying to match those stripes, but gave up pretty quickly. They are impossible to see from close up and I nearly went blind. I think I got away with it!
The park has a number of these objects – here’s another one – any ideas??
It has a slightly agricultural look, in my humble opinion. I should say that there is a key to all the sculptures, but I’ve never walked over to look at it – so lazy!! In spite of my misgivings, and Archie’s naysaying, Mark is really happy with the shirt. It’s quite different from any other shirt he owns, which is a good outcome.
The details:
Fabric is a floral print tana cotton bought from Global Fabrics in Dunedin
Pattern is KwikSew 3422
I don’t think you’ll be interested in his shoes, or that hat!!
A little note that it was Archie’s 21st birthday yesterday. Hard to believe that he made it, given his propensity for accidental self harm.
*I originally called this post “F is for Floriated, but changed it to “Fiorente” which means blooming – it is also the name of the horse that won the Melbourne Cup, so I thought this was an appropriate title (note that I did not have this horse in the sweep, so très grumpy as I got Très Bleu – in two sweeps!).
I also apologise if you got this post twice – I managed to delete it and had to frantically get Mark to email it back to me so that I could resurrect it!
Loved the shirt ,so comfortable and as for my son saying “Dad will never wear that” he is so far off the mark-not that old yet !!!
M
Shirt is stylish and looks great!
Thank you!
Very cool! and the floral appears quite understated in the picture. It looks like a very comfortable shirt too 🙂
I know what your game is Sue, if you make Mark lots of shirts, his side of the wardrobe will take on proportions similar to yours — smart move gel! xTC
Hehe, I’m going to have to make an awful lot of shirts!! x
This is lovely! I make my hubbie really loud shirts from quilting fabric – samurai warriors, anyone? They still look good years later, because the fabric is so nice.
But what I’m really here to say is that I know what the second sculpture is – and I think you’ll enjoy the serendipity. It’s a djanting, a tool used in South-East Asian textile design. The reservoir holds the melted wax, which pours out through the spout or in this case three spouts, to create the designs in batik work – which are often floral.
Thank you for taking the time to tell me about the djanting! I also have a bit of quilting fabric to make some shirts – I just haven’t done it yet. It’s nice to hear that they last a long time.