ALL 10 SHIRTS NOW FINISHED

I am absolutely delighted to announce that I have finished the last of my D Mike's shirts this evening.  That is 10 shirts since the 15th May this year when I completed the first shirt for his birthday.

Here are the last two shirts ( the one on the left is made from a beautiful Oxford broadcloth, and the one on the rights from a shot satin which hates to be photographed - too shiny).

This has been quite a journey, and there have been ups and downs during this whole process, but on the whole I have really enjoyed making these.  While the deal I made with my D Mike will result in a beautiful designer handbag, in truth I would have been more than happy to do this just for the love of it, because it is a delight that he is so happy to wear something I have made for him.

As regular readers of my blog will know I have been making other things along with these shirts in the last two months, but here are the stats below:-

Pattern used: Kwik Sew 3883

Alterations to pattern:

• Added back pleats
• French cuffs
• Flat felled seams
• Embroidery
• Collar stays

Fabric used: 22.5 meters various fabrics

Equipment used:

• Bernina Aurora 440QE
• Janome 350e embroidery machine

Machine feet used in addition to the normal foot:

• No.10 for top stitching
• No. 3A for buttonholes
• No.70 for flat felled seams
• No. 68 for hems

Mistakes made on this journey:

•  Sewed sleeves on the wrong way round
• Top stitching went wrong so had to unpick it
• Sewed some of the buttonholes too small and had to unpick them

Achievements:

• Managed to use my No.68 foot for hemming the shirts (I struggled with this foot in the past). 
• Perfected my method for sewing my collars thanks to Margy posting a very useful tutorial on her blog.
• Came 2nd in the PR contest (One Pattern many looks) - THANK YOU VERY MUCH IF YOU VOTED FOR ME
• Learned how to perfect top stitching the points on the collars from an article in the Threads magazine

Amusement:

• Embroidery in the yoke of each shirt culminating in 10/10 CC (= the last shirt that gets my beautiful bag) - Mike often says I am going to wear number 3 today or number 6 which I think is really funny.

We have chatted about which day we will go to Bond Street in London to purchase the bag, so it will be a week on Tuesday when we will be on vacation.  Now I will be in a panic about what I wear to walk into a Chanel boutique - oh the stress, does this mean another special Chanel shopping outfit.  I wonder if I can do any snoop shopping while I am in there.

I hope you all had a good weekend.  Catch you later......