Ottobre 6/2012 #37 - Chambray shirt

Since moving back to the US, I've done some experimenting with ordering fabric online. I had only dabbled with it while living in Canada because of shipping costs, duty charges and the nuisance of return shipping. As expected, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Some purchases are better than expected and some are disappointing. The corduroy for these pants was the former and the chambray for this shirt was the latter. The chambray is nice fabric, it's just different than what I had envisioned. I went ahead with it anyway.

This shirt is for my son and is the partner piece for these pants. I like how the shirt looks with the sleeves rolled up. He will have none of that.

The pattern is just a classic collared button-down shirt from Ottobre (6/2012 #37). I like the two-piece collar, the lined yoke, and the properly scaled front pocket. Breast pockets that are "off" (to my eye, anyway) in size, scale, or placement really bug me.

I used a plaid shirting for contrast on the collar stand, under collar, inner yoke, button placket, inner cuffs and sleeve plackets. I've been doing this with most collared shirts I make lately and I like the small amount of interest it provides.

My plan was to do the topstitching with navy blue thread, but it looked terrible. After trying some other options (gray, tan, white) I chose an off-white. The buttonholes looked too bright with that shade, so I used a light beige thread for them.

I'm such a sucker for a bit of bias plaid.

My son is happy with both of these pieces for fall - how they look and how they feel. I started with these because they are more involved than most of the other things I have planned to make. I know that if I start with the easy things, I'll run out of time for the complex ones. I find it easier to squeeze in the easy ones later.

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