I made this shirt for Archie whilst still in the month of February – sewing for those you love, in Stashbuster Sewalong land. I have finally captured him wearing it, albeit with the usual photographic reluctance on his part.

It is Kwik Sew 3422, this time with short sleeves. The only changes I made were to the collar, reducing it in size to suit his temperament (or something!).

The fabric is stashbusted – I bought it a couple of years ago from Potter’s. It is a beautiful drapey rayon that I bought for myself, but he laid claim to it, so being a good mother I sacrificed my own needs for his (and let’s face it – I don’t need another item of clothing!)

The buttons came from the Red Cross op shop in Margaret River and cost $1, so I was happy enough with that.

I haven’t made this pattern for Archie before and discovered, to my annoyance, that he has a much bigger neck than Mark and Tom and I to redraft pretty much the whole pattern. I now have three copies of this pattern – one for each of my menfolk!

This is the first time that I used soap to mark buttonholes instead of chalk. I have had a very difficult relationship with chalk, somehow managing to anchor it permanently to the fabric thereby ruining the garment. I have to say that soap is brilliant – it washes right out (obviously), but stays on the fabric whilst I fiddle with the buttonholes.

This is a piece of laundry soap that I honed to a sharpish point as I was using it for its intended purpose. It now has a permanent home in the sweatshop!

Farmer’s hat slapped on head, he headed off for a day on the river. I think he’ll be hot in the shirt, but what do I know?

The details:

Pattern is Kwiksew 3422

Fabric is from Potter’s Textiles

Model is, as usual, reluctant!