Present Joys

“We thank the Lord of heaven and earth
who hath preserved us from our birth
for present joys, for blessings past,
and for the hope of heaven at last.”

I wasn’t planning to make more shirts this week, but after a trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics on monday, I got excited to use some new stuff. I ended up with three shirts.

The first one is a generic short-sleeved shirt in red, white, and blue seersucker plaid. I didn’t use any interfacing in the collar! I put plastic buttons on it, in contrast to the usual. It’s fun!

The second shirt is really lame, made from “Lisette”-brand fabric on sale at Jo-Ann. I managed to make this shirt with 1.8 yards, which is a pretty good feat. But the shirt itself isn’t good. The fabric is too sheer; it was a pain to work with, and not in a good way. The pattern is cool and interesting from close-up, but from far away it looks muddy and gross. I don’t know how much I’ll end up wearing this one. But it was a good learning experience.

I’m really proud of this week’s last shirt, which is a long-sleeved shirt with barrel cuffs and gathered sleeves made from really beautiful white-and-grey cotton seersucker. It feels great, fits great, and looks really nice. The best part is the collar, which I cut perpendicular to the normal way. The grey stripes were so compelling that I really wanted to highlight them. Cutting the stripes this way helped make them more dominant! I think it turned out really well.

Currently I’m about halfway done with a short-sleeved “fun shirt”, so that ought to be done for next weekend’s roundup. Beyond that, who knows?