Finished: Nautical Negroni

        So when I spied this Kaufman chambray on fabric.com I fell in love and decided it's fate as an archer. When it came in the mail though, Brandon fell for it too. Usually when he sees my fabric choices he give me the side eye and I can imagine him thinking *I really hope I'm not with you when you decide to wear that*. After the disaster that was my last attempt at the Negroni pattern I felt like I owed it to him and I was all 'No problem, I'll get some more and make you a shirt too.' Until I couldn't find it anywhere. Begrudgingly, I decided I would use the precious yardage I had bought for him, because nothing says love like giving up your fabric soul mate.

 Luckily the sewing gods smiled upon me and I managed to find 1.25 yards and bought it in the hopes of maybe making both shirts out of the combined yardage. Luckier still, I managed to make the whole thing out of the 1.25 length.

 Changes I made were to shorten the shirt by 3 inches and the sleeves by 2. I also left off the pockets/collar loop, and ended up slip stitching the inner yoke down just because. The instructions were really easy to follow, and I really enjoyed learning how to do flat fell seams. However, the chambray frayed really easily and was a little bulky at the seams, which made finishing them slightly difficult. The end result is that the insides aren't as pretty as they should be. I also wish I had used a different colored topstitching rather than black, because it makes all the wonkiness really stand out. That being said the fabric is wonderful, and he loves the shirt regardless.

                                                     
 A few detail shots:

I need to work on that top stitching!

    Looking at pictures it's really apparent the sleeves are a little disproportionate and I need to take away a little width and shorten them about another inch. Also I might lengthen the next version a little bit too. All in all I think it's a good first try, and he's already decided he wants a few more versions.

And just because this picture makes me laugh: