Shirts

My first shirt I ever attempted was done by my mother (bless her soul). If my daughter asked for a similar effort today I'd probably "crown" her!

Since that very first one, I've made many, and here are some.

In 1998 I visited the United States and made some "cowboy" shirts to take along. The yoke patches were cut from upholstery remnant pieces that a shop sold for next to nothing.












THis blue shirt is made from a very light weight cotton (almost sheer) and shows up the border stitches effect that I like to decorate my shirts with.
Soon afterwards I acquired my first 1630 key and the Designer software...

THe green shirt also has standard 1630 border stitches.










THis pinstripe shirt is based on the "bib" that David Coffin describes in his wonderful book on constructing shirts (now there's a guy who knows how to "cut his cloth") [...the label in the yoke?... hmm that's mine.... if you invert my surname it spells LEN - look out for it on other items..:-)))]









How to have fun with a tired "off the rail" shirt - check the label, very common in South Africa! The squiggles between the buttons on the button stand is my own design - you can download it elsewhere on this site. The round circles come courtesy of Randi Joy in San Fran who gave me the Flower Stitch (Hi Randi! - see I got it to work!)








The anti-waste shop was selling this heavy weight cotton at R10.00/meter.... hmmm ($1.60/1yrd 4") ... I bought 20 meters.... did you just call me a STASHAHOLIC!!!!
The border stitches in variegated black/grey is unfortunately not visible on the scan... tsk-tsk!










Never say never!... I couldn't for the life of me see myself EVER doing patchwork... that's until I discovered the seminole variety!Real fun and very quick at that!




Another very light-weight cotton pinstripe shirt I often wear to the office. The bib gives it a somewhat formal appearance. And since our previous President (Mandela) made the mandarin collar popular again...

One of my favourites.. often worn to church.. the scan doesn't "do" anything for it. The designs on the collar is from the "hearts and flowers" key.