{easy linen shirt}

March's Sewing For Boys Sew-along pattern was the easy linen shirt. 

I debated about what fabric I wanted to use for this shirt.  I've never sewn with linen before and thought it would be a great opportunity to do so.  Problem is I couldn't find any boyish linen locally, I did find some online but it was pricey and I wasn't sure Milo would get a lot of use out of this shirt.  I wandered into JoAnn's and decided to just take a look and see what I could find that wasn't too expensive and I found the perfect fabric.  This quilting cotton in black and white print worked perfectly for the shirt and the coordinating fabric, dog paw prints, was great.  Best part was that this fabric was on sale for $2.50 a yard, woo hoo.  I wasn't too sure about embellishing this shirt so while doing a bit more wandering I found a cute little black & white puppy button that I knew was destined to make it's way onto the shirt.   



Sleeve hem facing turned up, side vents & top stitching.



This shirt came together very easily, I had it totally done in a couple of hours from cutting it to completely finished.  I did modify the shirt a bit and I am pleased with the outcome.  To start with I knew I needed to add a couple of inches to the length.  Since I added about 2 inches to it I figured side vents would be helpful with getting it on and off.  I also added hem facings to the sleeves and bottom and finished them off with a couple of rows of top stitching for a bit of detail.  The sleeve facings ended up being perfect since sleeves were a bit long, just turning them up to expose the facing worked great and looks super cute too.   

The collar I did backward from the instructions putting the contrasting/coordinating fabric on the outside. The puppy was placed on top a small patch of the contrasting fabric.  The patch has unfinished edges so it will fray when washed.  I used french seams so there are no raw edges.  I love all the little details of this shirt!

Milo's GQ pose!

Best of all Milo loves his "fire puppy" (what he calls dalmatians) shirt and has already worn it several times. This shirt does show-off his neck/chest scars, good thing he's not self-concious about them.  I'm now thinking about that retro robot linen I found...just might have to take the plunge!