Weekend plaid

My very stylish friend wears plaid to distinguish weekends from weekdays, and I am envious of his strategy. And I have been admiring Jenny Gordy's Wiksten clothing for a long time, some patterns for which were recently made available in .pdf form. Clearly this project's time had come!

This is a Tova shirt, and it probably won't be the only one I make (bloggers seem to make them in twos and threes and now I understand why!). It was quick and fun to put together with room for lots of the hand-sewn finishing details that I cherish. The inset (here cut on the bias), collar, placket, and cuffs don't take up much fabric, and I imagine that they would be fun places to put pretty FQs to good use. If I used a fabric with an obvious wrong side I'd underline the inset, though. This mellow straw-coloured shirting was supercheap from fabric.com, and is soft and light without being silky or slippery.

Don't look too close at the placket, which I sewed in upside-down and only noticed quite a bit later (oops). The inside of the collar is folded up and sewn down by hand, which is my favourite treatment for this kind of edge, much preferred over topstitching. My gather distribution below the inset got kind of uneven in the middle there—the machine had a bit of trouble powering through all the layers of the placket and inset—so next time I'll take a bit more care with my basting in that area. Setting the inset into the front was a challenge until I figured out that you can do it in three stages (straight across the bottom from drillhole to drillhole; up one side; up the other).

I made a few very minor alterations, because I am relatively bounteous of bosom and buttock compared to the rest of me. I cut a size L, but added 1/4" to each side at the armhole, tapering to nothing at the waist, for a total of 1" extra room. I also widened the sleeves by 1/2" and shortened the shirt by 3" so it hits just a couple of inches below my hipbone. It's comfortable and easy to wear, and I am satisfied!