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Five shirts to sew this summer
We love sewing for summer, it’s a chance to use fabrics in bright colours and beautiful prints and take them out for a spin at outside gatherings from BBQs to weddings.
While our dresses are always very popular amongst sewers in the summertime, in this blog we want to focus on a different kind of garment for the sunny season: shirts.
Great on their own, shirts also provide the perfect extra layer in the warmer months, when a jacket is too much, but a vest/dress on its own just won’t do. If you like to cover up when the sun is blazing, a breezy shirt is just what you need and we have quite the selection of shirt patterns in our arsenal – there’s something for every style!
Fabric-wise, natural fibres like cotton and linen are the best option to wear in the heat, as they stay nice and breathable when the temperatures start rising. Let’s see what kind of shirt you could be making this summer…
1. First up, it’s our latest release: the Jodie Shirt. This pattern gives you the ultimate crisp linen shirt. Depending on how you style it, Jodie can give you a put-together outfit for the office, tucked into skirts and trousers, or a casual look, worn as a shacket over a summer dress. Not come across this kind of lapel collar before? Fear not, we have a new class on Stitch School on How to sew a revere collar.
2. The Alex Shirt from our City Break eBook is a good place to start for those who haven’t made a shirt before. With its relaxed fit and no tricky collar stand or sleeve plackets to tackle, it looks fantastic in linen and cotton. You also have the option to make it into a shirt dress, just the right length to double as a beach cover-up if you take her on holiday!
3. If you’d like a short-sleeved option, look no further than the Libby Shirt. With its on-trend cropped boxy shape, Libby looks great with skinny jeans and our Ultimate Trousers. Try making her in a light cotton lawn or voile, which will feel great against the skin in the hot weather.
4. For a more feminine option, have a look at the Zadie Blouse, which features a simple short-band collar and beautiful gathers at the neckline and cuffs. Zadie needs lightweight fabrics with good drape to make the most of its billowy shape, so if you’d like to stick with natural fibres, you could make her in a silk chiffon.
5 . Finally, if you’re after a classic button-up shirt with all the trimmings, we have the Ultimate Shirt pattern for women and its menswear counterpart, the Hackney Shirt. These are slightly more involved makes, so if you need a little help along the way, check out our Intro to Sewing Shirts on Stitch School.
We hope you’re feeling inspired to sew up some shirts this summer, which one will you go for first?