It's round four of the Super Online Sewing Match and this time we got to sew up Collette Pattern's Negroni shirt. With this challenge came a new dilema - consulting and agreeing with my husband's tastes along with my own. What was supposed to be a quick stop at the fabric store soon became a long drawn out excursion with each of us holding multiple bolts of fabric and trying to convince the other one the choose one of our picks. In the end we agreed on this warm, plaid flannel. I love the bold colors and modern squares which allowed me plenty of opportunity to play with the angles. My husband also picked it for one additional purpose - Ohio State. You see, my husband is from Ohio and loves college football. He has never been much of a jersey wearing kind of guy so he thought that this fabric would create the perfect shirt to watch all of his buckeye games in their red and gray colors (more about that later).
One of the things that I loved about sewing up the Negroni is that it is a more casual take on a collared shirt so there was a lot of room for individual details. I played a lot with the bias of the fabric to add interest. I did this on both the back yoke and also by adding front yokes to both of the shoulders.
I also created two elbow pads as a small accent with the main fabric cut on the bias and attached them at both elbows with a simple edge stitch.
When looking at pictures of other Negroni's my husband mentioned that he preferred his collars to be a bit less pointy so I angled them back (making them more boxy instead of triangular) by about 1/4 inch on both sides.
For the pocket I added a large box pleat for some added interest. The fabric for the pocket was cut on the bias as well.
Like I said earlier my husband is a big Ohio State fan and we made this shirt in Ohio State colors. To add a little personal touch I hand embroidered this little label on the inside neck of the shirt. I like knowing that the note is there even though no one else can see it. Hopefully it will make him smile and remind him that I made this shirt for him every time he puts it on.
Honestly, probably the hardest part of making this shirt was cutting it so that everything lined up properly once it was sewn. I took a lot of time to make sure that the front would line up properly. For those of you who have made a plaid shirt before you know that this is not for the faint of heart. I must admit that I am pretty happy with the way that all turned out.
Sewing the sleeve placket was a good experience. The instructions were clear, and since I went slowly it ended up being the most successful placket that I have sewn to date. I made it in a red cotton - which is also on the inside of the cuffs, pocket flat, under collar and the inside yoke.
Another thing that I loved about the Negroni pattern was that the instructions made it very easy to not only have a great looking shirt from the outside, but it also teaches you how to make sure that the inside of your shirt is also finished to perfection. All of the seams are finished with flat felled seams and french seams to make sure that there are no exposed seam allowances.
The Negroni is already a slim cut shirt, but I ended up taking both the side seams and sleeves in by another inch at some places to make it even more slim. I also raised the arm circle by about an inch and shortened the sleeves and hem by about an inch as well.
Front:
Back:
In the end both my husband and I are excited about how this shirt turned out. I think it's going to get a lot of wear this fall during college football season.