She’s a Lumberjack and She’s OK…

… she sleeps all night and she works all day!

If you’ve never heard the Monty Python lumberjack song I’m referencing, please do yourself a favor and check it out.

So yes! I’ve made myself a shirt/tunic worthy of a rugged lumberjack!

Pay no mind to the wrinkling under the bust. I clearly failed to iron that part after it hung on the drying rack. My bad.

But a lumberjack doesn’t care because s/he’s got trees to chop! (And women’s clothing to wear?)

The pattern is the super popular Deer and Doe Bruyere Shirt. I. am. in. LOVE! I swear, either the pattern drafting is genius or I’m shaped like a true Frenchie because I sewed a straight size 42 with NO alterations! And look at that fit!

I’ve needed to make shirts that cover my bum to wear with leggings and it looks like I found my TNT for it. I needed something warm yet stylish for the long plane trip to Japan because heck if I’m wearing jeans on that flight!

The fabric is yet another plaid flannel from Cali Fabrics, similar here. This one is more medium to heavy weight and is SUUUPER warm. I did have some issues when flat-felling the side seams at the waistband. My sewing machine refused to sew anything that thick, so I ended up blind hand-stitching the side seams down at the waistband. Oh, well.

The sleeve plackets were different than what I’m used to with the Sewaholic Granville Shirt and I have to say that I like these much better… mostly because they were much faster and easier to sew.

I used plain ol’ cheapo black buttons and kept the recommended placing for the buttons on the front band. I also added another button near the collar in case I wanted it buttoned all the way up for warmth. Deer and Doe uses so many buttons so I guess you’ll never have to worry about gaping button bands!

One thing I found odd about the pattern is it only recommends interfacing on the cuffs. I’ve sewn enough button-down shirts that I know you definitely need more than just the cuffs interfaced! I interfaced the collar, waistband, and front button bands in addition to the cuffs. I only interfaced one half of the button bands but next time I’ll only interface one fourth since you actually fold it four times over and it gets very thick very fast. In fact, it’s such a struggle to button and unbutton this shirt because the bands are so darn thick and those buttons are so darn cheap. Here’s hoping I don’t hulk smash the buttons and break them one day.

Another odd thing I noticed is they only have you cut and sew one waistband piece. I guess that’s OK but I like having pretty insides and no exposed interfacing, so I cut another waistband piece to have on the inside to cover all those ugly sewing guts.

But all in all this was a fairly quick sew and the only reason I am looking forward to warmer weather is so I can make the sleeveless version of this! Eh, who am I kidding? The weather is always warm here so I guess I can get started on that soon, haha!

I’ll catch ya next time and in the meantime, go make some tree friends!

-RED