Cashmerette Vernon - TomKat Stitchery Shirt Making 101

I had the great pleasure of spending this weekend in the Indianapolis area sewing with my friend Whitney from TomKat Stitchery, and almost a dozen new sewing friends! I took Whitney's Shirt Making 101 class, love my final shirt, and had a blast making it.

The first evening was focused on fit. Whitney helped take our measurements and assess which size would fit us best. She had prepared muslins in advance for us to try on based on our measures and that helped us speed through any adjustments we needed to make. I fell into the size 6 range and, although this pattern offers much more ease than I usually wear, I liked that style and decided not to size down. I did shortened the sleeves 1" for length and and additional 1 3/4" to use the longer cuffs. I also shortened the body 1" at the lengthen/shorten line and made a 3/8" broad shoulder adjustment.

Our homework on the first night included cutting out our adjusted pattern pieces and interfacing so we could start sewing first thing on the second day. Whitney didn't follow the order of construction in the pattern instructions and it was very interesting to learn the order of steps she prefers to construct her shirts. By the end of the second day our shirts were mostly assembled and looked like shirts. I think my biggest takeaway from the second day was, in addition to using the burrito method for the yolk piece, Whitney also used a modified burrito method on the collar stand and cuffs. I don't think I'll ever make a button up shirt another way!

Of course we finished day two with a field trip to True Cotton, a local fabric shop that supplied the materials for our course. I don't think anyone, myself included, left empty handed. Hopefully you'll see makes with those fun fabrics soon.

The third and final day we focused on the finishing touches including hemming our shirts with bias tape, buttons and button holes. I'm so thrilled with how well my shirt turned out and can't wait for the linen to soften with time.