Donnybrook

 https://fridaypatterncompany.com/products/donny-shirt-pdf-pattern

I have seen several cute versions, but it needs some editing to be a repeater.

I love the idea: I want a on grain pullover woven shirt pattern, and I am tired of the same self drafted pattern. And it makes sense to support indie pattern makers. And my local fabric store.

Our Other Benefactor, Pacific Iron & Metals

The pattern photos make the v-neck look short enough

Lots of sizes

Oh yes, it's Saturday night, Earth Vs The Spider on Svengoolie

I traced off the XL size.

I traced off a copy because I wanted to save the pattern in case I needed to make more edits for future versions. I don't cut into a new pattern anymore because altering the original keeps me from going back to see where I went wrong. And that is going to be a saving grace for this one.

I traced off the half-yoke on a fold to a full piece, because I am cutting two of them. 
That back neck was not too wide, which surprised and alarmed me.
I am wider now.

The seam lines are not very far apart from each other for each size. The seam allowance is 3/8"/1cm,which is stupid small and the marks are hard to see. I added enough to get to 1/2", and I made the hem 1" longer.

this is a Liberty lawn with text from The Tempest on it, and while it is unreadable, it would be annoying to have it be leaning off. So I grained up the fabric (fortunately the print is on grain)

Oh yeah, the sleeve isn't wide enough for my arms now. If you have arms, check your width before you cut.

Goofed around to get it to fit.

Also made sure the pattern was lined up.

Of course I made a burrito

The construction has a lot of work around the neck. You sew the finished upper collar to the yoke/fronts and then sew the facing/yoke to that. The neck could really get stretched out too far with that much work and such a narrow seam allowance. I was really careful, but there was some distortion.

Yes, there is a center seam up the front. No, I did not match precisely and it is off by a half inch.

The v-neck is too low for my height, but bringing it up an inch, as well as bringing up the lower part of the lower collar and narrowing the upper collar will address the scale problem (I am short. There is no petite alteration line on this pattern. It says the fit model is 5' 6" in the size chart. Just keep that in mind, short and tall folks). 

I am going to move the yoke line up an inch as well because I can feel it when I reach forward. The back of the neck feels fine on my chubby little dowagers humplet. The width around is true to size.

The issue is going to be print matching the center seam, OR altering this to have a v neck and skip the curve on the lower collar facing to make the front one piece. As I think we all know by now, I love novelty prints and I get tired of print matching across the front (thus my repeats of the pullover bias shirt that is not the scout tee). I also have a stack of really nice Japanese yarn dyed shirt plaids that I would love to be wearing.

And this is where it starts turning into a total redraft. Or simply a graft of a new collar onto the old pullover shirt. In the meantime, I am going to close up the collar a bit for my own peace of mind and underwear reveal/non-reveal and chew it over. It generally has a good line. It just needs some thinking.

Oh wait, I changed the collar, eliminated the center seam and made another one. 

I do sew in episodes of the same pattern, with a new monster of the week in each version.

and yes, I was watching Widow's Bay.

The "flange"is removed so the collar has no notch.

Resulting in:

Like you can see the edits here. An old Tula Pink set that has been waiting .

Oh wait, there's another you can't see the collar on.

A Liberty lawn from the last couple of years. They make florals and then they make utter nonsense that makes me deeply happy. this is the latter. As ever, click on the photo to make it too dang big.

Yes, I am this wide now.

Back when I made the first one in May, the cornus kousa was like this:

All the bracts have fallen and been composted. All these shirts have been worn and washed, and require ironing before wearing. Sigh.

Altering the Miyake 2127 has taken forEVer

 One thing that isn't getting much love right now is an Issey Miyake top (V 2127) that does not fit in it's neck yoke piece. I have done this before, where the seam gets manipulated and the piece stretches out so far and so badly there's no point to continuing. Thus is the case with # number; it's been sitting around waiting for finishing because there no  point in finishing it.

And then I figured let's just take it apart and see. It's not stretched out; thank god I staystitched it before I attached the collar strip. It doesn't fit me that well, that one piece yoke is a mistake I fell for, but it's salvageable. 

It poofs out at the top of the placket and the horizontal pieces don't help. Plus that collar piece. Ew.

I have taken the placket apart at the top, shaved off a sloping 1/4" to nothing at the second snap on each side, will eliminate a little poof. Clipped off the overlap on the underside and am sewing it into the placket. Took off the collar and replacing it with a bias strip collar. It is still not a great thing - the drafting is kind of crummy -  but it's a wearable thing that looks cool enough for people to not point out some very obvious design flaws.

I won't run into you, and you wouldn't say anything. Would you?

Slip Stitch Patch Pockets

         

I have been poking at this post since November 2025; work and life have been in waves of upheaval.

And the illustration disappeared and I had to redo it.

Sandra Betzina is a guiding light in construction techniques, in addition to the other talents she possesses. 

https://youtu.be/Zzu6uW8RkYw?si=zdPuOveVkToSOv0-

The subscription website no longer exists, 

There is a DVD with this technique out there in some library systems, but it is out of print. 

The preview is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-QDfg6J9AU&t=135s

I have watched it, and this tutorial is based on that video. I would link you to the video if I could. I am being a little vague here on purpose.

The key is making a cardboard template. To trace around, to iron the edges over onto. Cardstock, cereal boxes, corrugated is too thick.

Click on this image to make it too damn big and legible.

I cut out my pieces the same size and trimmed and eyeballed them to a pleasing proportion of 'how much fold over of the outside fabric I could spare'. 

I didn't have much to spare. These pockets are a little small for my purposes, but they will hold a cell phone until I am forced into a larger phone.

(pocket sizing is another post for another day)

I  am tracing the sewing lines onto the lining fabric.

I have machine stitched the lining part to the garment and am ironing the seam allowance in to the inside.

Using the cardboard template

I held the slipstitching edge like a sandwich in my left hand and slipstitched with my right.

Yes, there were hand cramps and I took breaks. 

What the stitching looks like on the inside of the garment

What it looks like on the outside. I do not have enough of this fabric to match the print, but you could.

All hail the genius of Sandra Betzina. I claim no invention, I am just executing her well considered instructions. 

My best writing is in the comments now (the Die Hard reboot).

Okay, I am a crank in the comments, but I am annoyed with the 'you would be a real sewist if you used This Special Item'. I have fallen for that, how many of us have at least one overpriced object that taunts us from the workspace?

https://www.dmc.com/US/en/products/11-cm-mini-weaving-loom

Don't ask me how much I paid for one ten years ago.

You don't need to get in that race; you can probably make do with what you have for the task at hand right now.

Sure, I love my expensive seam rippers, but I love shiny things and I love picking them up. Which is good, because most of my sewing involves picking up and using a seam ripper for hours. 

And I enjoy that.

And while it's still early enough: my Die Hard theory. It is a Christmas movie because it's a corporate Christmas party held at the company headquarters because they are too house proud and too strapped to rent a hotel, thus inviting in a hoard of caterers and event workers, none of whom have been vetted or carry id besides wearing house blacks and toques, pushing portable warming ovens on wheels and laundry hampers. Baby, I can write a better one just from the front of house notes from the corporate holiday party we just hosted at our venue. 

Notes for the remake: 

There's no money, it's a lie, they are about to go into receivership on January 1st. The safe is empty.

Terrorists pop out of laundry hampers; the rolling warming ovens they bring in are thermonuclear devices.

The HVAC vents are too small, you move through the dropped ceiling.

Waymos need to be a part of the ending.

It writes itself. Sadly I dumped this on my unsuspecting boss, right after he told me that Macauley Culkin said Die Hard couldn't be a Xmas film because the plot could have happened at any time of year. Mac has never been to a corporate Xmas party, and my boss is just really sad right now, and I am sorry I harshed his mellow.

I will try to be a better person in the new year. Meanwhile, my dislike for the James Cameron Avatar movies continues:

If anyone of you went to the last Microsoft Christmas party, please leave your memories in the comments. Oh boy. It was a whole lotta something.