The Road to a #MeMade Wardrobe: Simplicity 9158
About a year or so ago, my hubby went on a hunt for a dashiki. He loved the prints that dashikis came in, but he found a hard time getting with the silhouette. It was just too boxy for him. He was looking for something with the teensiest bit of a fitted look. So while I could cut a dashiki pattern for him blindfolded, I knew that wasn’t what he wanted. So I told him to wait. Then the pattern gods smiled down on us and Simplicity came out with a men’s pattern that was a perfect combination of tailored and simple. It only took a few minutes of rummaging through my Ankara prints for him to pick out one that he absolutely had to have this shirt in.
Pattern: Simplicity Sewing Pattern S9158 Men's Half Buttoned Shirt
Fabric: BSP1406 from AKNFabrics
Style: Men’s Half Buttoned Shirt
Vintage/Contemporary: Contemporary
Pattern Edits:
1. The shirt was originally a long sleeved shirt and I turned it into a short sleeved shirt. I would have kept it long-sleeved if the sleeve had cuffs and plackets and thus could be unbuttoned and rolled up. But as it was, combined with my hubby’s Popeye forearms, and amazing ability to sweat at the drop of a hat, rolling up his sleeves would have been an impossibility. SO yea, I cut off the sleeves.
2. PLOT TWIST! I made the shirt and Aaron even wore it a few times and when I got ready to take a picture of him in it I couldn’t find it anywhere. So I tore apart the apartment to no avail. Then I went into the costume shop at school and found it among a bunch of donations that I’d brought in weeks before. What’s funny is that I made Aaron a totally new shirt to replace the one that disappeared. So now he has TWO! Something tells me that lucky duck had something to do with the shirt temporarily disappearing.
Lessons Learned:
1. So when I’m working with strangers, I know exactly how the client/service provider relationship works. But when it comes to my husband, I have to be careful to not treat him like my husband and treat him like any other client. Sure, he’s not paying me (except for love and affection). But I was pretty hell bent on keeping those sleeves even if I had to re-pattern them to include cuffs and plackets. Yet and still, he knows what is comfortable and uncomfortable for him and he wanted ‘em gone. And so it shall be. And once I saw the shirt on him, I knew it was the right decision.
I was a little concerned about how the button sitch was going to work out but it ended up being simpler than I thought. So I would recommend this pattern to anyone. There are only 5 pattern pieces tops. So have at it newbies!
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