Oliver and S – Sketchbook Shirt

Greetings from my new house and new craft room. It means that i can leave projects on the table and just easily pick them up when i have a spare few moments without having to put everything away in between.

Whilst my previous house was for sale, i piled up a long list of things that i wanted to make, but didn’t start because of the need to regularly clear up the whole house. And then i moved house, and had ‘move related’ things to do, as well. Slowly, i am catching up with my craft ideas from earlier in the year.

The Oliver and S sketchbook shirt is currently notable because the little lad that it is made for has a birthday in a couple of weeks time, and might like to wear it!

I’ve made several Oliver and S children’s clothes in the past. The patterns are often quite technical, but, in general the patterns and instructions are very good. The shirt is quite technical, and in mini version, i suppose making it potentially fiddly, although i didn’t notice that as i popped into my craft room and carried out a few more stages of the pattern, every so often.

It has taken me several hours to make this. I do hope that it is worn enough to justify the time. It helps to have made ladies shirts to a similar design. Well, maybe it helps! I was totally flummoxed by the process, as described, for attaching the inside yoke. After much twisting and turning of fabric, trying to match to the diagram, i had to leave it over night. The next morning i ignored the instructions and just considered what i was trying to achieve. This edge needs to match to that edge, with the seam inside…. type of thing, and i had soon worked out what i needed to do. Lesson learnt at times like that; work it out for yourself rather than trying to follow the confusing instructions.

Having said that, the diagram for stitching the sleeve placket really helped.

So eventually i had something that looked like (a rather smart) shirt. It just needed some form of fastening. I remembered to take a fabric sample on holiday with me, and found some suitable buttons on Durham market, a long way from home, for the princely sum of 4p each. I’ll have 10 please.

I still don’t understand why there are markings for a button and button hole on the collar, especially as the button hole that i have stitched is on the wrong side of the collar to be fastened with a button. I’ve checked and double checked, and i appear to have done the right thing, although there is nothing in the instructions about stitching these features, or, as far as i can see, anything that highlights that the pattern is wrong, and the button hole should be on the straight edged part of the collar. I’ve left the stitched holes, but haven’t opened them, or added any buttons.

And then the bit about previous experience of making a similar design in a ladies’ shirt…. Right at the end i added my super cheap buttons to the front, but i’ve put the button holes on the wrong side – the ladies’ side, not the boy’s side. Bother! I had just opened the holes when i realised. Too late! A 2 year old will almost certainly not notice, or indeed, even know about correctly placed button holes. But i would probably have been sent home from Sewing Bee! It’s taken so long to make that i wouldn’t have finished in Sewing Bee time either.

Despite all this, it’s a lovely little shirt. I will make more, if only to justify buying the multi-sized pattern, and it has 3 more years of life left in it. I’d also like to get the front buttons right next time.

I will also buy less fabric next time. I got this out of 1m, despite the pattern suggesting 1.5 yards. There is enough left for a pair of Sketchbook shorts, included in the same pattern. The only trouble is that it isn’t shorts weather any more, and is unlikely to be so for a few more months yet.

Oh, and a small warning, and apology to littl’un’s Mother – the fabric runs, so wash separately, and it will need ironing. She won’t like either piece of information!