So this week’s design feature of a plaid blazer was actually finished a while ago...like so long ago...but I’m just now getting around to putting it on the blog and putting written words behind it.

Design

The purpose of this design originated from the DIY Capsule Challenge that I set for myself, also a while ago. I wanted to design and create a 10x10 capsule wardrobe for myself. I still do, it’s just been put on the back burner. To be honest, it’s been taken off the backburner and has cooled off and created a dried top layer of film over in the dark corner of the counter. It’s still visible though, that’s what matters!

This design was to fulfill the button up shirt portion of my capsule wardrobe and was intended to have matching trousers. You can see the design illustration video right here where I sketch out the two options I was leaning towards at the conception stage.

Materials

Black and white plaid flannel - Joann
Fusible Interfacing
Black Thread
Simplicity Pattern 8416
*Buttons

Pattern Making

I didn’t draft this pattern from scratch. *Gasp* I  know. As a designer, that’s what I’m supposed to do. Be creative and make things from scratch, but no this wasn’t that. I actually had a hard time with this mentally. I felt like I was cheating by using a store bought pattern but then I had to think, cheating who? I’m blessed to have the knowledge to draft patterns from scratch, but sometimes, using a store bought is just so much faster. So using this store bought Simplicity pattern, I manipulated the collar and collar stand to be a shawl collar. That’s where I went wrong.

Cutting

For the most part, cutting out this button up shirt was fairly simple, aside from trying to match the plaid print and line everything up. That proved pretty challenging, especially with using a loose weave flannel fabric that easily distorts the grainline. I tried hard to match the pockets and the seams but to no avail. I did alright with the horizontal lines, but vertically, not so well.

Sewing

Sewing the button up shirt was very easy, from what I remember. Everything was pretty standard as I followed the instructions for the pattern as much as I could given the changes I made on my own. The only part where I was slightly confused was the cuff, partly due to me knowing how to do a cuff one way and the instructions asking for something different and partly because of the wording of the instructions during that part. I ended up doing what I wanted to so I could be done with it.

*Also, the button up should ideally have buttons going down the center front and on the cuffs, but I didn’t like how it came out so I decided not to waste any more time on it. So it is a buttonless button up.

Critique

When I first finished this project, I hated it. I had no intentions on wearing it ever. 2 years later, I'm reconsidering. The shawl collar area doesn’t roll over and fit properly which makes it slightly uncomfortable wearing, but now, it’s not a deal breaker. I really do wish I had done better with matching the print though. That would have definitely elevated the look more.

Evaluation

I did alright. Like I said, it’s wearable. I definitely need to work on aligning prints and trying to reverse engineer a pattern with a collar and collar stand that I didn’t draft myself to use a shawl collar wasn’t the best decision to make. Or at least don’t expect a perfect execution on the first try. Lesson learned.

View

If you want to see how this design and project came to life from cutting to sewing and everything in between, you can watch this video below.

What do you think about the plaid button up but not really button up shirt? Share your thoughts in the comments!

#MJConsistencyChallenge