Crafting The Donny Shirt: My Sewing Class Experience (Pt. 1)

I am once again in the hopeful, bright-eyed honeymoon stages of a new project. It’s autumn, it’s October, and this week I started a new community education sewing class called Sewing 2.

The class is 6-1.5 hour weekly sessions for $65. That’s roughly $11/class! What an incredible deal. I think there are 7 or 8 students total with one instructor who has a significant background in sewing. This is my 4th community education class, I think, and already I can tell it’ll be a good one.

The focus of the class is on seam finishes. I’ve only made one simple garment as an adult and for that I just used the zigzag stitch on my machine to finish the edges. It does the trick but there are so many other seam finishes to learn. The instructor showed us examples of pinked edges, bias tape bound finishes (aka Hong Kong seams), overlocked (aka serged), French, flat-felled, and turn-and-stitch. We then tried our hand at doing our own seam finishes on some scrap muslin fabric. I only tried French and flat-felled but found them to be easier than I anticipated. I’m hoping to do French seams for my garment.

For the next class we are tasked with bringing a pattern and prepared (washed, ironed) fabric. We were given only two directions on this:

1. When choosing a pattern we should select a shirt pattern that we want to make that has sleeves so we can learn this tricky aspect of sewing.
2. The fabric should be a woven (so, no knits/anything with stretch).

I’m glad we aren’t all making an instructor-selected pattern. It makes it easier to get excited for the class when I can choose a pattern I’m looking forward to making. This is where my dopamine goes crazy as I look at all the possibilities for a pattern and fabric. I love this part of a project, DUH, it’s absolutely the most fun part. Nothing has gone wrong yet and everything is possible.

So what patterns have I been considering? Initially I had my sights set on three indie patterns: The Butano button up, The Camp shirt, and the Donny shirt. I found all these patterns simply by being on Instagram looking at home sewist’s accounts and seeing them often. The Butano and The Donny are both by Friday Pattern Co. The Camp shirt is by Wardrobe By Me.

I do love a button up shirt. Making one though? I gave it some more consideration and buttons seem…challenging. Not to mention, I am absolutely terrified of the buttonholer attachment for my Singer. I mean, just look at that thing. So while a button up top would probably get a lot of wear, for this project I think I need to go a little simpler. The Donny shirt it is! It has some challenges that I’m willing to try tackling like inserting a collar and sleeves but there are no closures.

For the fabric, I learned my lesson on my last shirt project: no quilting cottons! I recently loaded up on fabric at the Textile Center’s annual garage sale, and I mean LOADED up. I felt so lucky, I got some really incredible fabric I’m really excited about, especially some of the linens and patterned cottons. I came home with two grocery bags full! I pulled out my options and started holding them up to my body and to the light to determine drape and opacity. The photo below has my favorites that I’m considering for this sewing project.

I also wanted to be mindful of what I actually wear and what I just aspire to wear when it comes to color. When I look at my closet it’s a little humorous–there’s a whole lot of navy, grey, black, plaid, and stripes. What can I say? I like what I like. Probably no florals this time around. My most-worn t-shirts are black.

I found it really helpful to pull out my button down tops to look at their colors and patterns too. My favorite favorite shirt to wear right now is that black Hawaiian shirt, funnily enough. I bought it this summer in the curated vintage clothing section of a little shop in Cornucopia, WI. I like the cut, the drape, the feel of the fabric, the black with the bold floral–basically everything about it. It’s 100% rayon. I can’t believe this is my only black top that’s not a t-shirt! And it’s not even a solid black. This is beneficial data.

The other extremely helpful idea I had was to pull out my favorite/most worn pants (and overalls) to see if the fabrics I’m auditioning work with them. I’m really liking some of these fabrics with my pants. Which fabric would you choose?

I bought the pattern at a local shop! I’m glad I didn’t have to get this one printed, but I will still trace it using Swedish tracing paper so I can choose to continue to use the pattern over and over. I’m hoping to write weekly about this project so check back in on my progress and to see what fabric I chose. Thanks for checking in!

Ash