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I am so very much NOT a fan of brown, but I LOVE this shirt.  Love all the fun colors, the super-soft flannel, the shape, everything.  And I did an image search to see if I was totally off-base comparing this to folk art and, nope, I was right.

Just to refresh your memory, the brown fabric was 2 yards of flannel from Goodwill, supplemented with some scraps of green flannel from my stash.

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The illustrations on B6099 don’t do a great job of selling the pattern, but I liked the fact that it had some unusual features and I thought it might give me sort of a peasant-y look when paired with the flannel.

I did view A and sized down to an L based on the finished measurements, which worked out perfectly.  When Butterick puts “loose-fitting” in the pattern description, they mean it.

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Still have a comfortable amount of ease there.

Cutting this out was quite a project.  I deliberated a long time on what fabric to pair with the brown, but I ultimately decided that I wanted something dark that wouldn’t upstage the main fabric.  Problem was that I only had scraps of the green.

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I shortened the sleeves a few inches, but still had to piece them in order to get them on-grain.  I also added a center seam to the yoke and the collar facing.  The cuffs were narrowed and done in two pieces, as I didn’t have big enough scraps by that point to cut them whole and fold them over.

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I added extra buttonholes and buttons (somehow I keep on doing that, don’t I?)  I marked the first buttonhole going the wrong way–perpendicular to the band rather than parallel–but I liked it, so I did them all that way.  😉

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Breaking with tradition, I got the collar on the first try!

I don’t repeat patterns very often, but odds are good I’m going to try this one again; I think it would be wonderful in a lighter fabric for the spring, maybe a solid to show off the features better.  It’s not really a quick and easy sort of pattern, what with the pleats, front band (those things always confuse the hell out of me), and the cuffs; I think it could be very versatile, though, depending on the fabric you use.  In the meantime, however, I’m really loving how this came out, and I’m looking forward to wearing it if it ever cools off here.

This is project #2 in my Destination Healthy and Happy sew-along.  Project #3–the denim dress–is actually finished also, but I don’t have any decent pictures of it yet.  And decent pictures may not be possible until I up my exercise to where it should be and lose a few pounds I put on recently (I am HARRUMPHING SO HARD about this right now, you have no idea).

Next up is the black jumper that I’ve been meaning to make forever; I cut out fabric for a muslin last night and will sew that up this weekend.

There is a chance, however, that plans could change.  Just look at what happened today:

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I saw this fabric yesterday at SCRAP and didn’t buy it.  Because I’m a sensible person, and I have lots of fabric, and I really don’t need more, right?  But then I obsessed over it–I actually dreamed about it, if you can believe that–and I went back this morning and bought it.

I initially thought it was fake fur, as I commented over at Steph’s place, but it’s actually a fuzzy fleece–even better!  The real color is a bit darker than the photo, just the richest, deepest red you can imagine with a subtle floral pattern.  I rarely wear red, for multiple reasons (that I really should write about sometime), but this is just gorgeous and so cuddly.  A jacket made out of this may yet find its way into my fall sewing plans.

Have a great weekend, everybody, and I hope you’re planning all sorts of colorful sewing for fall.

STH

Note:  I am linking this post up to Finished Or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts and Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.