Today is Blue Shirt Day in Australia. When I googled this event I see that BSD is held the first Monday in October to raise awareness of bullying, but our BSD is on the first Wednesday and is to promote awareness of mental illness among men.

Whatevs, I didn’t have a blue shirt, so had absolutely no choice but to make one!

I used the Grainline Archer, which I have made once before, but I forgot that the sleeves are a bit long. Next time I will shorten them a bit as I have had the cuffs folded in half all day – mind you, I quite like the look!

I got to work to discover that there were very few blue shirts about – what? I had made a shirt specially and we weren’t even celebrating? No cake?? Not to worry, I now have a fancy blue shirt with a frill at the back to give me some semblance of a backside especially when it’s windy!  I have to say that I love the back view of this shirt.

There is a sew along to make this shirt and I started to look at it, but decided to go my own way in the end. I prefer my method of attaching the yoke where there is no handstitching, and I think I will use my method of sleeve placket next time.

I can see in these photos that the shirt looks tight under the arms, but I don’t think it is in reality. I might have to check this out before I make another version. 

Apart from  that, this is an easy shirt to make.  

Next time I will use my overlocker to do the gathers a la the Craftsy blog. I didn’t quite get my gathers as even as I would have liked. 

I took these photos in Kings Park in Perth. The first lot of photos are at the Bali Memorial overlooking the river which is dedicated to the victims of the Bali Bombing in 2002. You can read a bit about the design here.

The other photos are taken on one of the honour drives in the Park. Each tree is dedicated to either a serviceman killed in the line of duty, or, in the case of these trees, a dignitary.

Details: Pattern is the Grainline Archer made from blue silk dupion bought by Mark in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Buttons are pearl ones from my stash. The necklace is a vintage French one bought from my favourite vintage shop in Auckland NZ.  Pants are by StyleArc.