Today Annika is sharing a Bookworm Button up that would delight just about any little boy! Read on…
I love button up shirts. I really do. I think little boys (and in fact also grown-up men) just look good in them. So when Melly made me a Blank Slate Sewing Team Member in summer I knew right away that at some point during the year I wanted to try out the Bookworm Button Up.
You can buy the Bookworm Button Up pattern for sizes 18m-8 using the Buy Pattern button below.
At first I was planning to sew a beautiful girly version for my daughter. However, my girl isn't too fond of more formal clothing. She hasn't worn most blouses or dresses from woven materials that I've made for her very often.
Plus, I remembered that I had that fun car fabric lying around. I won it in a german sewing competition organised by Westfalenstoffe, a fabric company. I could choose several meters of fabric from their whole collection and taking the car fabric was a no-brainer. My son LOVES cars. He plays with them, he mainly wants to read books that have cars in them, he shows us every single tractor, car and truck that we pass by when we are in the car (yes, he is basically pointing all the time). Adding a car to an outfit gives you 100% security that he'll love to wear it. This makes for a wardrobe practically full of cars: look at the pockets of these pants, that 3-wheel car on this t-shirt, that tractor on another tee, etc.
When the fabric, among the other prizes, arrived at our house, my son took it right away, draped it around himself and wouldn't want to let go of it again. He asked me several times to make something for him and what kind of mom would I be to say no to such a cute question of a 2 year old? So for this project it felt as if the stars aligned: A fabric that my son loves, a beautiful pattern and the fact that Christmas is just around the corner and I totally wanted something fun yet still chic for him to wear then.
In fact, the whole sewing went smooth. This is the 3rd button up shirt that I've sewn, but was the first time that I used the Bookworm Button Up. I really like to sew button ups in general, but this one here was amazing. It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Blank Slate Patterns or otherwise I wouldn't be in the BSP sewing team. However, this pattern is THE perfect example why I love Blank Slate Patterns. Sewing a button up isn't hard. It takes time as there are many steps to do, but it isn't difficult per se. Most patterns somehow make it seam more difficult than it actually is. With the Bookworm Button Up I loved that the sewing instructions had just the right amount of detail for me. I guess Melly and I are thinking in a very similar way and her instructions always are just right for me. There is not one step missing in the instruction. However, there also isn't written too much. I don't like it when pattern instructions are 60 pages or so. I probably won't even start sewing because I'm afraid of the length of the project. Melly's instruction, however, are very detailed, yet to the point, which is so hard to achieve. Plus, I especially loved the way that the inner/outer yoke is constructed. No top stitching necessary. Just some crazy burrito techniques going on 😉
As I said I totally wanted to use that car fabric. However, I didn't want the shirt to look super childish, but rather cool. I thus went to my trusted fabric shop in Munich and looked for a nice solid color to go with it. I found that red fabric that is almost like chambray and thought that it would fit nicely. As you can see I cut the cuffs, collar stand, inner yoke and placket from that contrasting fabric and it turned out just as I was hoping it would. When looking for buttons, some different colored buttons of the same shape and size fell on the shirt and I decided to go with buttons in the same colors as the cars. And as I had so much fun, I decided to use thread in the same color also for the respective button holes. Besides just looking awesome (I hope you don't mind me saying so), this also means that my husband will finally be able to dress my son without having to unbotton the shirt several times 🙂 I'm really so happy with these buttonholes. Not just because of the different colors, but also because buttonholes usually drive me crazy. I don't know why my machine and me always had these problems, but whenever I tried to sew a buttonhole, I had to unpick and re-do it at least (!!!) 3 times. When sewing a button up with 7 buttonholes, this can drive you absolutely crazy. This time, however, I didn't have to sew any of them more than once. And this even though I had to change thread after every button. I don't quite dare to say it, but I might have conquered the buttonhole feature of my machine. I see many more Bookworm Button Ups in the future!
What about you? Have you done any sewing for the holidays or do you still want to sew something? I can really recommend the Bookworm Button Up. Can you imagine one in black, maybe with a little bit of shiny black fabric on the back yoke, for New Year's Eve? Well, I'm off. Gotta look for black fabric online, but I sure hope to see you someday over at my blog Näh-Connection. Hope you'll all have a wonderful christmas and a great start to an exciting New Year!
You can buy the Bookworm Button Up pattern for sizes 18m-8 using the Buy Pattern button below as well.