Pink and Flowery All-Day Shirt

For J's birthday this year, I did some secret sewing and made him two new shirts.  This one was made from the Liesl & Co. All-Day Shirt pattern.


My husband didn't know I was sewing this shirt, so I couldn't measure him.  I decided to just sew a straight medium, which is also his shoulder size in the Fairfield pattern.  I had faith that Liesl's pattern would be a bit more consistent in sizing, so I felt ok about trying the medium as drafted.  As it turns out, it fits him quite well.  The neck is spot-on.  I do think the shoulders are just a touch wide; I probably could have narrowed them 1/2".

The All-Day Shirt has two views - View A with cut-on plackets, one pocket and pockets for collar stays on the underside of the collar; and View B, with separate plackets, two work-style pockets and a button-down collar.  I went and examined his store-bought dress shirts, and noticed that he never puts the collar stays in them.  I was thus tempted to sew the View B collar, but ultimately decided to pull out all the stops on the pattern.  I'm glad I did, because the collar stay version really doesn't add too much time to construction, and it feels really fancy on the shirt.  I didn't make collar stays because he has a whole bunch from his RTW shirts that he doesn't use because the shirt collars stay straight on their own.

The Fairfield is the only other pattern I've ever sewn with a two-piece collar, so I didn't have much to compare this pattern to.  But I really like Liesl's collar sewing method.  It made it much easier to get a clean finish when topstitching the collar stand, as compared to the construction method in the Fairfield pattern.  Every time I've made the Fairfield, I've had trouble getting the ends of the collar stand (and the bottom of the cuffs, actually) to tuck all the way under cleanly.  I didn't have this problem with the All-Day Shirt.

I also liked the way that the shoulders are finished - it's not the burrito method, but everything is still neatly enclosed.  I did not read through the pattern instructions before starting to sew, so I was surprised to see that the armscyes, side seams and sleeve seams were all just finished together and pressed to the side with optional topstitching (which I did).  I really like the flat-felled seams of the Fairfield, so I think the next time I make the All-Day shirt I will add 1/8" to the seam allowances so that I can flat-fell.

The sleeve placket on this pattern is cut into two pieces before being attached, which allows you to make a contrast under-placket if you so desire.  I found the instructions a bit confusing, though, because they say to stitch the plackets to the sleeves at a 1/4" seam, as marked on the pattern.  But the pattern markings have the stitching line drawn at a 3/8" seam allowance. I went with the 3/8", but my under placket is teeny and I couldn't fit a button on it, so I think it is actually supposed to be 1/4".

The cuff instructions. Oh man. I did have some difficulty figuring this out. It's the same method as the collar, but for some reason, the collar seemed much more intuitive to me.  I found the cuff method super-fiddly, but it did solve one big problem I always have on the Fairfield, which is getting the bottom corners of the cuffs folded over and stitched with no raw edges poking out.  Hopefully Liesl's method will get easier for me after I've done it a few times.

I sewed the pattern completely as instructed, with no adjustments. The only thing I did differently was to use one layer of interfacing for the collar and collar stand (I believe you are instructed to interface both pattern pieces for each element, though I don't have the pattern instructions in front of me right now).  In any case, I find that the interfacing I use for shirts is plenty stiff with just the one layer.

Oh, you want to know about the fabric? It's nice, isn't it?  I used 2.5 yards of this Telio cotton poplin.  I have been greatly influenced over the years by the stunning floral shirts Nicole makes for the men in her family (this and this are just two examples). J doesn't own any floral shirts and I could tell when I presented this to him that he was a little unsure. But I think he totally pulls it off (and it doesn't hurt that pink is a great color for him). What he needs now is a nice gray tie to go with it.

I'll be back soon with the other shirt I made him.  Until then, thanks for reading, and see you next time!