nest full of eggs: Ethan Shirt

Ashley and Emily over at Frances Suzanne are hosting another year of "Flip this Pattern”. Today I am kicking things off for the month of August with the SisBoom Ethan shirt. I’ve got two creations for you today, both an unflipped and a flipped one. First let’s start out with the unflipped version. I sewed one up by the pattern for my tween boy.

Over a year ago I was very inspired by this Sketchbook Shirt which was sewn by Cindy of Siestas and Sewing. I had to sew a similar one for my octopus loving son.

First off, here is some basic info about the Ethan Shirt for boys:

$10
sizes 1-14 (most children's patterns go up to size 12, so what a bonus that this one goes all the way up to 14)
166 pages (each size is separate so that’s why there are 166 pages)

I remember for The Great British Sewing Bee series 1, for the finale they had to sew a man’s buttons shirt which included a collar stand, but without cuffs and they had to complete it in 4 hours. Thank goodness I didn’t have the time constraint of 4 hours!

Sewing it up by the pattern, this project took me more than 4 hours. There are a ton of diagrams, but a few of them were incorrect and when you are a visual learner like me, this can become frustrating. I wonder how these mistakes get past the testers. Maybe I’m just super picky when it comes to the visuals.

There are lots of time consuming tedious steps: front pocket, front button placket, collar stand, collar, 2 sleeve plackets, cuffs, lots of pressing and gluing, topstitching on almost every piece (are you still with me?) So this project is not for the faint of heart!

At one point there were many layers of fabric I had to sew through, this was at a corner of the collar stand, trying to sew through all those layers I broke a needle! I found attaching the sleeves to be a bit tricky, they didn’t ease in as easily as I’d hope they would.

Once you follow this pattern and instructions you will have one very well made shirt which I think would meet the high standards of judges Patrick Grant and May Martin of the Great British Sewing Bee.

Another note, in my experience, most American sewing patterns use a 1/2” seam allowance and most European ones use a 3/8” seam allowance. This one it’s 1/4”.

With these instructions you have everything you need to know with the many step-by-step diagrams for a well-designed button shirt with collar stand. Having a collar stand was a huge thing for me, that’s what I was looking for in a button shirt and not all button shirt patterns out there have a collar stand.

The instructions show you how to do your very best sewing. Going through all the steps you notice the small details and I think you learn to respect the craftsmanship it entails.

During this whole project I was following the pattern with accuracy and consistency and doing my very best sewing. With the end result I have a huge sense of accomplishment.

At $10 for the pattern, it is a good value for your money.

Next up for my flipped version, I sewed a blue sleeveless dress with pleated skirt for C in size 6. The very full skirt makes for a very twirly dress!