The Summer Shirt – Tessuti Jac Shirt

So – the lovely thing about sewing, but also the curse, is that you make a lovely new thing and immediately it creates a need for other lovely new things! This was the case with my Ultimate Trousers.

I made trousers and I love them and wear one or more pairs pretty much every week. I have decisively filled the trouser shaped hole and I am still incredibly pleased with the results. But I realised that now I desperately need a longer length, loose shirt to go over them. I love the Bellini shirt that I wore in the blog pic for the trousers but sometimes you really want something that covers all the lumps and bumps!Then Ingrid at We the Sewing mentioned that she was planning to sew up the Jac shirt by Tessuti. I took a quick look (as you do) and immediately decided that this was the loose fitting shirt of my dreams and promptly downloaded it.

This is the first time I used a Tessuti pattern. Tessuti have some free patterns so you can try out their patterns before buying.I can’t see many examples of this shirt online. I really like the detail of the angled seams and the side slits which give the shirt some shaping. This is the perfect pattern for a lightweight linen fabric.

I used a white cotton fabric which I picked up in the remnant bins in Abakhan locally. This fabric has fine stripes woven into it and is rather sheer, but not at all difficult to work with. I previously used some of this fabric to make a Named Kanerva top for the Separates Challenge.Tessuti rate the pattern as suitable for intermediate/advanced rather than beginner. I decided to cross my fingers and trust to the looseness of the design and went ahead without making a muslin. I went for a medium throughout which was the closest match to my measurements (normally I end up having to grade between sizes). Unusually the seam allowance is 4/8 inch, but the collar uses 1/4 inch allowances so you do have to read the instructions carefully.

The construction is a bit different to previous shirts I have made and I found the instructions for making the angled slits at the side seam quite confusing. The shirt did come together beautifully and it is perfectly drafted so everything fitted exactly but the way it came together wasn’t at all intuitive. I ended up unpicking one bit that I hadn’t lined up correctly but apart from that I got by through following the instructions and hoping it would make sense in the end (which it did – phew!)The collar instructions mean that you sew the collar onto the inside and topstitch on the right side and next time I would use the Foursquarewalls collar tutorial, which I used for my Archer shirts. The finish on the collar stand is probably the thing I am least happy with – I ended up with the curved ends not matching up exactly with the button placket, which is very much my lack of skill rather than a problem with the pattern. I decided not to bother sewing a button onto the collar stand as I don’t want to wear the shirt fully buttoned up.Overall I am really pleased with how this turned out, it’s boxy but the angled seams give it more interest than a typical loose top. It’s perfect for summer in the office, I love the slits on the cuffs and the hem finish is super neat.

So what next for summer sewing? I still have plans for dresses and more woven tops and maybe another Hollyburn skirt! What is everyone else looking forward to making for summer?