Denim Olya

This is my third Olya shirt, so I’ve met my self-appointed minimum acceptable uses of this pattern. I’m probably not done, since I’d like to make a dress-length one as a duster (a la I Sew, Therefore I Am – the big question remaining, linen or flannel?). But this one is a low-stakes, no-name, easy-to-wear 6.5 oz. denim!

In the future, if sewing fabric of a similar weight, I’d interface only half of the front placket and none of the seam allowances. Trimming the allowances off the interfacing is fussy, but having a pile of extra pattern pieces just for interfacing is also fussy, so there’s just no pleasing some people. Me! I am some people! Anyway, this is the heaviest fabric I’ve used for this shirt yet, and while I like the structure in the collar and cuffs, I couldn’t see a way to neatly double-fold and topstitch the hem across the front plackets. The multiple layers of fabric, interfacing, and seam allowances would make it quite thick.

When I realized this – between attaching the collar + stand and sewing the hem – I unpicked the last 6 inches or so of the finished placket. This allowed me to sew the placket’s short bottom ends wrong-sides together, then hem the main shirt with a double-fold hem, tuck that hem back into the “pocket” of the placket, and topstitch to seal.

It’s not my tidiest work, but if I plan ahead next time (say, in a flannel scenario), I could set up the placket to have a finished bottom edge and one overhanging seam allowance, then attach it neatly to the otherwise-hemmed-and-finished shirt front, pre-collar.

A lot of placket drama this time. I’m not sure why, but one of my front plackets was also a lot shorter than the other. I must have cut something funny, since that’s never happened before. I had to trim the longer placket and shorten the shirt front at center a good 5/8” to match. Now the shirt appears to be tipping back when you look at the hem. I’ll just make sure to walk around leaning about 7° forward. Problem, solved!

Rewinding slightly, and I don’t know if this was because of fabric thickness and turn-of-cloth, but my completed collar + stand were also substantially shorter than the neck opening, again for the first time. Luckily, thanks to the order of construction, I could adjust the angle of the shoulder seam to make the neck circumference smaller. I took an extra 3/8” from each side of the neck, grading to nothing at the shoulder point.

This changed the angle of the shoulder slope to be much flatter, which isn’t an adjustment I need, but I *did* need (want) to not recut my collar stand, so I’m okay with it! That seam is just finished via serging anyway, so there was nothing lost in terms of pretty guts.

It’s been a while since my last Olya and I fully forgot that the seam running from the wrist across the chest is finished at a later stage – not post-pocket, but post-sleeve. After constructing one pocket, I saw I couldn’t get in and finish edges the way I wanted (and thought I had) to. I grumpily unpicked the pocket, finished its edges and those of the horizontal front shirt seams, and resewed the whole shebang. One corner would never be the same! Then later I opened the page in the booklet where you’re actually instructed to finish that seam and blew myself a raspberry. That dodgy corner did at least create an opportunity to bartack!

The wrist-to-center-front seam is meant to be serged, and that’s what I did. But my one real dissatisfaction with this pattern is the visible serging when the cuffs are turned up, as mine nearly always are. I cut the “back” layer of the seam allowance (the layer that’s behind when the SAs are pressed up and topstitched) incorporating the denim’s selvedge, and I hope that remaining fluffy edge tricks the eye into thinking it’s just seeing selvedge, at least a little.

Next time, though, I’ll do as I oughta and emulate Mainely Menswear’s Olya – beautiful inside and out.

That said I did interface the snipped and inverted corner!! I’m not an animal!!!

When I tried on the shirt pre-fastenings, I was pleased by its resemblance to a mechanic’s workshirt. I thought that style probably called for snaps, and I went looking for images of the right kind of snaps, only to realize that a real work coverall (as opposed to a fashion one) is unlikely to have visible metal fastenings. Nothing that can catch or spark, I guess! So instead of going the mechanic route, I dug up the last of my laser-cut wooden buttons, these eyeballs, for a combo look I’m calling “broomstick mechanic”. I didn’t get the cutting depth quite right on these so I had to prep them for this project by popping out the not-quite-detached insides of the holes with an awl. Pop! It was satisfying!

I only had 8 eyeball buttons. I could have used basic round wooden buttons on the cuffs, but I don’t plan on wearing this shirt buttoned to the neck anyway, so I placed 6 on the front and 1 each per cuff, and that’s been fine. I’ve chiefly been wearing this Olya as an overshirt, either buttoned or open. So far, I like it! It’s been handy as an extra layer on these sunny but cool March days (our family dialect for that is “cwarm”, which I just realized I’ve been mentally spelling “quorm”, despite the word’s obvious origins).

While half of me feels like I should give it a minute before sewing this again, the other half could be persuaded of the usefulness of a flannel duster. Or a linen one! Or a flannel one! Or a linen…

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Pattern: Paper Theory Olya shirt

Pattern cost: NA

Size: 14, shortened sleeve 1″

Supplies: 2 yards of 6.5 oz. indigo washed denim, $28.00, Gather Here; thread, Michael’s, $2.39; buttons from stash

Total time: 6.5 hours

Total cost: $30.39