Western Africa Shirt?! Finished!! Simplicity 6693

I doubt I'm the first person to think of this, but I am so pleased anyway...a Western shirt for the Roommate, made with West African fabric!  *smirk* 

So you saw some previews in the last post, but here's the whole chimichanga!  With the supermodel showing how it's done...

I took lots of pictures for 2 reasons: 1) I'm extremely proud of it and 2) because I wasn't the one having my picture taken!  I do not love being on the other side of the camera.  

This first picture shows the Roommate wearing a BIG smile (it may not look like it to you, but believe me, after 30+ years, I can tell when he's happy--even if you can't!).  I think he likes it.

It was actually fairly easy.  I have really always thought that making men's clothing would be the hardest thing possible, but after 4 pairs of underpants and 2 shirts, I'm feeling less intimidated.  So much so that I'm going to repair some of his Mohammed-made suits which are mostly in good shape, but the lining needs some repair and the buttons need replacing.  I won't be making any ties or suits anytime soon, though.  

I'm starting to realize that perhaps it's the fabric & fitting that makes things difficult, and if you work with cotton and sew for men (who don't need so much fitting), it's not that difficult after all!  

The second photo, on the left, shows the medallion, which appeared by accident in the fabric we bought in Cote d'Ivoire.  I think it looks great & is a super substitute for the embroidery recommended on the original 1974 pattern.  

I was thinking about a Western (African) shirt after seeing Cracker & Camper van Beethoven a few months ago at the State Theatre...then I figured out where to get the pattern from Zoe's post about the shirt she made for her husband.  

I really love how the big print & the little print work together, too.  

Some of the stuff I learned while making this pattern...

First, the collar band.  I was so confused at first I tried to just sew the collar on, the way I do with my clothes.  But then I went and looked at some of the Mohammed-made shirts the Roommate has & figured it out quickly. So I took it off & did it again.  (I was glad to see even Tasia has do-overs!)

You can see the collar band up close in the 2 photos below:

And second, how to put on pearlized snaps.  Which you don't need a special tool for; the instructions on the back of the Dritz snaps are very good. And very good for working out your frustrations! 

The photo above shows the button placket detail, with the snaps, and also with my extra attention to detail.  I have mentioned before how often in West Africa we noticed they use the fabric right up to the selvage.  Why not? It saves hemming & you get a bit more additional fabric.  

The fabric I used had great selvages on both the large & the small prints. You can see how I incorporated it into the placket, which I think looks pretty darn cool! That same selvage also worked to line the edge of the slash for the cuffs.  You can see that in the detail to the right.

Pocket with snap!

The pocket was another area where I used the selvage.  Here's the London Wax Prints & the RB mark which show on the pocket upside down.  But that way the Roommate can read it!  I did not put the snaps on the pockets...couldn't quite decide if it needed them; I may still do that.  

A few more pics below and I'll stop.  I hope this inspires you to try something (somethings) new, too!

And I think the appropriate music for this particular episode?  Euro-Trash Girl by Cracker!

Someone is on summer vacation & hasn't been
near the razor much!

Reverse-Thinking (aka Planning)

You'll see from my posts about batik and ikat that one thing that really impresses me about these techniques is the planning required to think "backwards."  By which I mean starting out with the lighter color, then going darker & darker to create a multi-colored piece of art.

As I've mentioned before, ikat & batik are the 2D/textile versions of relief carving techniques for wood or marble...both of which completely mess with my brain.

What it comes down to is planning.  Which I think I'm pretty good at, but when sewing I often find that maybe I'm not as good as I think I am!

For example, the Western shirt I'm making for the Roommate, Simplicity 6693, which I found at Etsy after being inspired by Zoe's shirt for Paddy.  I decided to use this wax print we got in Cote d'Ivoire for the contrasting yoke & cuffs, because though it's amazing, it's a huge print, which I can't get anywhere near my body--the hugeness might overcome us all--and there's not really enough to do much with, other than pillows.  

(Maybe I mentioned that most fabric in West Africa is sold in 2 yard or 6 yard pieces?  Because 2 yards are needed for a pagne, from which you can make a skirt, a top, a headdress, or a carrying cloth for your baby.  So that's why I didn't buy a whole lot of fabric...I was going for variety so bought many 2-yard pieces, or smaller scraps, rather than a few 6 yard pieces.  We brought home 80 pounds of textiles, leaving almost everything else we had taken behind, so I wasn't going to waste space or weight on big batches of a few samples.)

Anyway, so, without really thinking I cut out the contrasting yoke & cuffs.  Then, when I went to sew the yoke onto the shirt, I saw this:  

Without noticing, I had a huge medallion right in the middle of the contrasting yoke.  Except it wasn't exactly right in the middle, darn it!  It was about 9pm, so I decided I'd take a look in the morning.  

This often happens when I make a mistake.  I walk away from it, especially if it's getting close to bedtime, because I often find I just make even more mistakes, which require more ripping out & re-sewing.  I also very often have to talk myself into the ripping out/re-sewing part!  I am essentially quite a lazy person & avoid do-overs whenever possible.  I'm much more of a make-it-work and hope no one notices girl.  

So I get up Saturday morning, take a look at the shirt, and though I know that the Roommate wouldn't notice, and probably most people wouldn't either, the amazing medallion will be most effective if I un-sew/re-cut/re-sew.  And really, I brought the darned fabric all the way from Ivory Coast...why not use it well?!  And after yoga...

Here's the new yoke, after the re-cutting.  I think you'll agree that it's going to look great...and sort of goes along with the suggested embroidery featured on the pattern's cover.  

My least-favorite, but most-used tool, along with a preview
of the main fabric for the Western shirt.

Other stuff I've made: Quilts

West African Fabric Shop

I'm always raving about West African textiles & the roommate's & my 5-week shopping trip there...here are some quilts to show you what I made.  I bought a lot of fabric, and haven't made much of a dent in it, so plan to use more for dresses, shirts for the roommate, etc...

The first quilt (they are smallish 6' x 4' or so each) is called West African Fabric shop and shows nice orderly rows of fabric, one each of every kind I bought!  A friend in Dubai machine-quilted them for me.

The Anarchy of the African Market

The second quilt is titled The Anarchy of the African Market.  We like markets and find that they are a good place to observe the local people just being people, not selling things to tourists, or performing in any way.  We like to walk around a good market for a long time.  But the markets in Africa are pretty chaotic, to say the least, and really, downright scary.  (This doesn't include the much smaller, much harder-to-get-to markets of Goram Goram, Burkina Faso, or in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, which were fun, friendly, not crowded and very interesting--though not if you were looking for tourist treasure.)  So this 2nd quilt tries to reflect that anarchy and explains why I ended up not buying much fabric at the markets!  And mostly why we skedaddled after 20-30 minutes...we did try to go a few times, in Ouagadougou, in Accra, in Lame, and in Tamale, in northern Ghana, but never lasted a half hour--scary!  Jammed so tight you knew you were a target for robbery (I get nervous about this anywhere in the world), and also, it was pretty easy to lose each other!  Yikes.

This last one is a table cloth, and it sort of quilted itself, because as I sewed each strip on, I sewed it to the backing, then I just put the binding on.  Hope you like seeing these.  Comments? Questions?

Here's a mix of classic highlife music to get you in the mood.  I'd recommend looking for a classic highlife (50s-60s) CD online, or at the library, to get a better taste of this amazing music.