The January theme of one of the Facebook groups I belong to – Sewalongs and Sewing Contests – is Making Shirts, hosted by none other than David Page Coffin, author of The Shirtmaking Workbook.
I was away for the first week of the SAL and will be away for the last week, which presented me with a little problem. I wanted to participate, but didn’t have a lot of time to futz around. I decided to make Mark a shirt, but not a business shirt, a sport shirt. I read the relevant bit of the book and set about adjusting the pattern and this is what I made.
I used KwikSew 3422, my old favourite, but made the sides straight, added two pockets, and changed the collar into a convertible collar with no back facing and no collar stand. I took one of the collar patterns that comes with the Shirtmaking Workbook online content and fiddled with it to make it fit the shirt. I then cut two inside facings by tracing round the front pattern pieces in the usual way.
I also added a little tab on the left front for a button under the collar, as I see this style of casual shirt with button tabs, but regretted it, and didn’t give Mark a button – I know he is never going to use it. Speaking of buttons, these are lovely turned Jarrah buttons that my mother gave me years ago. She bought them and they were $6 for 6 – such a lot of work for someone.
I was going to focus on the fit for the sewalong, but Mark abandoned me for the weekend and I was left to go it alone. I don’t think the fit is too bad though. I do note that he tucks it in as though it was a business shirt, but agree that it probably looks better like this.
I used all the usual sewing techniques, including the burrito method for attaching the yokes to the two fronts.
However, I do admit to faux felling the side seams and armholes for expediency. 
The fabric is a beautiful linen with a touch of spandex that I bought years ago in Potters. It’s not a colour that I would wear, but it is good for Mark.
He loves this shirt so much that I have had to pry it off him for laundering. At the moment I am hand washing it because of the Jarrah buttons, but I wonder how quickly that level of care will wear off and I go back to tossing the shirt in the machine with everything else. Time will tell, I guess 🙂