Studio Shirt - McCall's 6044

It's been quite some time since I made my husband a shirt.  So long in fact that I can hardly admit it to myself.  When we were first married I made him a few shirts for school and aside from that I haven't made him a proper shirt since.  Plenty of pajama pants and a really great jacket but no shirt.  I'm the worst wife ever.

My husband is an artist and although we live in sunny SoCal, his studio can get cold in the winter.  He wears flannel shirts and light jackets all of the time so it seemed perfect for him to have a handmade one.  I found this really thick plaid flannel that is dreamy soft and pulled McCall's 6044 out of my pattern stash (because I've been saving this pattern to make him a shirt for a while).

View C calls for 2 1/2 yards of 45" fabric for a size large and I purchased 3 yards to accommodate the plaid and shrinkage.  I measured a shirt from his closet that he loves against the pattern and found it was so similar I didn't have to make any changes.

Not surprisingly, one of the most time consuming parts of the shirt was matching the plaids.  I made the shirt in small time increments because I wanted to keep it a secret.  I made the body, the collar, sleeve placket/cuff and front placket all in sewing spurts, so before I knew it I was finished.  It was a great way to work on a project.

This is a good pattern for a first shirt because there's no yoke, a simple sleeve placket but it still has a traditional collar with a stand.

When I gave it to him he loved it and didn't realize I made it.  The best compliment ever!  He wears it on cold days and it's so soft I always want to hug him.  I wish I could get a picture of him in it but a photo of him for my blog is "never going to happen."  But...since I can't have a picture of him I took a picture of one of his yummy paintings to share with you.  Don't tell...

Here's my review on PatternReview.com

Here's my Kollabora.