Almost four years ago I was gifted with a short course at the London College of Fashion - Home Sewing and Simple Garment Making at their Lime Grove campus for six weeks. This was a pivotal point in my sewing life and potentially the true start of a prolific hobby. Before then I had dabbled in garment making, learning from others, trading my marketing skills for one-to-ones and, before this opportunity, had never taken a course in sewing before.

The course was aimed at sewers who knew the basics of a sewing machine and wanted to learn more about the construction of garments. For this course we needed to have purchased a simple, non-lined top, dress, trousers or skirt pattern and enough fabric to make your chosen garment. I distinctly remember that my teacher gave me a raised eyebrow when it was my turn to say what my pattern was: the Simplicity 1279: Misses’ shirt with collar variation. In true form, I didn’t pick a pattern that said the word “easy” on the packet, because while I wanted this course to specifically challenge me on my current knowledge and skills I also wanted to make something I hadn’t made before, and in this case it was a buttoned shirt. 

For me, a shirt is not just a shirt. It’s the experience of what goes into making it: the people, the skill, the approach, the fabric. There are so many different pieces that it really takes time to make a shirt. 

Skip a few years forward, back to present day, and here I am. It has taken almost four years for me to get round to making this shirt again. I won’t be making a calico version as I had made one in the course and it still fits really well on me. For my new version, I will be using my never-ending wine and black Italian jacquard fabric; as it is 100% cotton it feels really soft to the touch but has enough structure to hold pleats and gives any garment a lux feeling. This fabric works really well on both sides and I will be using the wrong side to give detail to the shirt; I just need to work out which is the wrong side! 

I cut a size 8 with a B cup in the shirt variation B. There were a few things I changed, such as altering the gathering on the back and front pieces to pleats instead, giving the shirt a crisper look and to match the pleats on the cuffs. I didn’t like the collar and opted to redraft another version, testing it on my calico first where it was far more dramatic in length and point: when the shirt is buttoned up the collar tips end at the height of the bottom of the arm scythe. 

The Big Four aren’t known for their most clear instructions and, even though I had made this shirt before, I still struggled in the early steps when I needed to burrito the yoke front and back pieces. Perrine, in her recent Deer and Doe Magnolia post, made a comment that she loves “garments that are beautiful on the inside”, and I wanted to take a leaf out of her book too. So I ignored the instructions for those steps and just worked it out by pinning the pieces based on how I wanted it to look. When I was happy with the outcome I carefully stitched straight on top of the previous stitch lines. If I wanted to make this again, I would sandwich the back piece between the back yoke pieces, so that the right side of one back yoke piece would face the wrong side of the back piece, and the right side of the back piece would face the right side of the other back yoke piece. The only part that I thought could have turned out a little bit nicer was when I added the collar facing to the rest of the shirt, and once again my ditch stitching looked wonderful on one side but not the other. 

I’m really happy with my anniversary shirt. I really took my time with the sewing and restitching parts that I was unhappy with. I finished off the shirt with these wine coloured natural pearl buttons from Minerva, they really complete the shirt. The fit isn’t completely perfect and I have found that there is a little bit too much fabric around my bust area and side seam. I’m not entirely sure what has happened, as my previous shirt fitted like a glove and I didn’t deviate from my previous draft. Overall, this shirt makes me feel really confident and in all of its subtlety has allowed me to carry on pushing my comfort zone with colour.