Blue and Gold

His pattern: BurdaSyle's Men's Shirt 7045
Her pattern: Grainline's Archer
Fabric: 4 yds collegiate cotton broadcloth
Cost: $36 for two shirts

Sometimes you get an idea in your head that is a bit too wacky to be real. The danger when you sew, however, is that you have the ability to make those wacky ideas a reality. Such was the case when I decided that Mr. Made and I needed some new collegiate gear from our alma mater. And that the gear in question should be matching Hawaiian-style shirts plastered in our school's logo.

You can actually buy this fabric for a lot of schools online, and when I saw our logo I knew there was nothing stopping me. Well, except that it sold out and I had to wait a few more months for it to be back in stock. Apparently I am not the only one with this wacky idea?!

The shirts themselves sewed up rather quickly, and were excellent practice for doing a collar stand and button band. The two patterns are ones I actually plan to use a lot: Grainline Archer and BurdaSyle Men's 7045 (printed pattern sold through Simplicity). I'd made each up once before, and it was nice to have the chance to fine-tune some of the construction.

I actually really like the BurdaStyle pattern: the fit is good, the directions are clear (unlike their online patterns), and the construction is simple and straightforward. The only thing I had issues with was that the back of the shirt doesn't match up very well with the yoke: both times I have made it the back piece has been a bit too wide, yet the pattern does not instruct you to ease it in. On the whole though, it's a great classic pattern to have.

I hardly need to tell you about Grainline's Archer as it seems just about everyone has sewn it up. One change I did make, however, was to extend the center front on both sides to create a fold-over placket. Sewing on a separate placket seemed like unnecessary extra work to me, and since the men's pattern did it this way I figured I wouldn't be breaking too many rules.

Print matching with this one was a bit ridiculous. I made sure that the print was lined up vertically and pretty much left it at that. I wish I had made the fronts match a bit better, but it was difficult to work out after they had been folded under twice. That, and I didn't have too much extra fabric. On the whole though, not bad for a novelty item!

Once made, I have to say that they look ridiculously bright in my living room. All that blue and gold together combined with the squares and logos had even me questioning this wacky idea. Once in the stadium, however, they hardly stick out, providing just enough uniqueness to be noteworthy.

I wish I could say our shirts served as a good luck charm, but the Bears did not do too well. I'm not sure even the wackiest outfit could save them at this point... At least the shirts were a crowd-pleaser!