Adventures in Shirt Making - Part 2

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Mark 2 - Paisley brushed cotton pyjamas

Mark 1 left me with a pretty pair of pyjamas that are both too lightweight for me to ever wear and too big across the chest but mum was gifted with 4m of paisley print brushed cotton which she generously let me make into pyjamas.

I retraced the pattern from scratch as a size 36 on top grading out to a size 38 at the waist. The collar, collar stand and yoke were left at the straight 36. I shortened the sleeves by 5cm and made a 2cm full bicep adjustment to make the sleeves the same width as the size 38. On the front, I made a 12cm full bust adjustment and rotated the dart to work with my apex point remembering to measure from the shoulder point on the yoke not the top of the front. Then I shortened the front by 6cm. The back was also shortened by 6cm and the fastening band by 3cm. Just holding the paper pattern piece up against me with the dart folded in this front looks so much better fitting that the first attempt but the pattern piece is more tape than paper it feels like and the dart is impressively big.


The slight excitement with this version is that we had 4m of the paisley brushed cotton but it was narrow fabric and the previous owner had sliced a 2m x 10cm wide strip from the length of the fabric. We managed to get everything but one front, one collar piece, and all the cuffs from the paisley but didn't realise how tight it was going be early enough in playing pattern tetris. So I spent the evening searching for a meter of brushed cotton that would look decent with the already cut pieces. After one failed attempt at buying pretty flannel over the internet - it's pretty but not flannel or a good match with my wardrobe so that's another shirt muslin for mum - we went with white cotton flannel and dyed it to suit. If I was to do this over I would pick a mint dye for the cotton flannel used to extend the paisley flannel rather than forest green and I'm glad we didn't dye it to the full dark green it was supposed to be but the shop I brought the dye from didn't have mint at the time.


As a garment the fit is much better on this version. Fitwise, the dart could do with being a couple of centimeters shorter and I need a 4cm sway back but it's wearable on me this time. For ease of sewing, I need to do a better job of truing the side seams post FBA.

It's really comfortable, I don't think I've owned a shirt that fits this well this puberty reared its ugly head. For me, RTW shirts are always so lose through the shoulders and upper chest they restrict my movement or they don't do up over the bust. Having both fit is kind of a revelation. I want all the shirts.