Tag orange
Giovanni Mingozzi, artwork for Campari Soda poster, 1950. Italy. Via internationalposter
I won’t say no.
The last shirt of the summer, made from a 100% linen fabric I got on sale at Sew to Speak in Clintonville. It’s very good quality stuff, extremely springy and lineny. It was also a giant pain to work with: all the areas where I had to match stripes, like the sleeve plackets, had to be carefully basted by hand before they could be stitched together. But I think it was worth the extra work. The fabric itself was woven with stripes running not parallel with the selvage, as with most fabrics, but perpendicular to it. As you can see, this meant that all the stripes on this shirt run 90° to the way they’d be on a “normal” striped shirt. This presented an unusual challenge.
As you can see, there is no attached collar. The collar band has buttonholes on both ends so I can wear a separate collar attached with studs. I’ve got a couple white cotton collars in my closet I made a few years ago that fit pretty well, and I plan to make a few more detachable collars from what remains of the linen stuff. Perhaps on labor day.
Having no attached collar means this shirt’s neckband will always need to be fastened. So I figured I’d play up the formality aspect and make french cuffs instead of the usual barrel ones. I don’t particularly like french cuffs, but I enjoy wearing cufflinks every now and then, and I thought this exceptional fabric would look nice with fancier cuffs. There is no breast pocket, because this is a dress shirt, in the true sense of the term.
I’m taking my vacation this very last week of summer before school starts, so this shirt concludes my one shirt every week project! It’s been a really fun and educational summer! I feel much more confident in my shirtmaking abilities. I also feel good for having documented my work every single week. Thanks for following along with my adventures!