The Western shirt has sleeves!
This was a Sunday afternoon development after I made my guy try on the shirt after I'd attached the collar (and verified that a 40 would indeed still, erm, accommodate him -- it had been two years or so since this project had been put on hold, people).
The instructions for the sleeve had me baffled, and I had a momentary desire to lop them off short for the few remaining weeks of summer weather in order to avoid making them. I was staring at three pieces: the sleeve itself, an underlap, and an overlap. The pattern called for slashing. Slashing! I get slashing with welts, but this was the first slashing I'd done other than for welts, and the instructions (and illustrations) were both terse and cryptic.
Stitch to reinforce, slash; for the underlap, right side to wrong side, fold, press, turn; for the overlap, wrong side to right side, fold, press, turn, topstitch, VIOLA! Huh? But, I decided to go with it, and like some origami that at the very last fold miraculously results in its intended form, the overlap and underlap turned out nicely. I'm very pleased with learning how to do this.
There was also A LOT of ease in the sleeve front. The instructions called for basting and pulling up the thread to help with the ease. I did, and this also miraculously turned out with only one or two of the teeniest tucks. I'm trying to be much less fussy, and that's making a huge difference I'm pretty sure. Plus, as I mentioned before, this fabric has been nice and sable, if a little heavy.
I did hate this fabric for this shirt, but now that I've attached the sleeves, it doesn't seem so awful. It's kind of growing on me. My guy is looking forward to wearing it, too. It's going to be one of the only shirts in his closet that isn't too big yet has long enough sleeves.
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