Sewaholic Granville: Second Verse, Same as the First

Well, this may look a little familiar! I’m really fond of button-down shirts in general, so naturally, once I completed a successful first run of Sewaholic’s Granville shirt, I pulled my next fabric and did it again. I was pretty satisfied with the first one, but I love this one. The fabric is some gorgeous Andover chambray from Fabric.com, although it seems as though they’ve discontinued this particular color. I only had 2 yards of it and it’s 45″ wide, which is a full yard less than the recommended fabric amount. Fortunately I managed to pull it off, although I admit it was tight, and I wouldn’t have managed it if I’d needed to place patterns or prints. The fabric, though, is absolutely my perfect color and was wonderful to handle, unlike the mystery fabric from hell on the white shirt. I only made a few modifications on this version. I added back in the 3/8″ I took out the first time. The collar was a little tight last time, and I wanted the additional width on the neckline; also my yoke and back section (with the three back pieces princess-seamed together) weren’t quite matching up in length, but adding in the 3/8″ fixed that up. I also added 1/2″ to the height of both the collar stand and the collars. I always feel as though standard collars are too small, especially if I’m wearing a tie; I get very self-conscious if my tie peeks out from under the collar in the back. I really like the proportions on this collar, and probably will continue using it. I remembered to add the 3/8″ length back onto the collar stand, but I forgot to do it on the collar, and just stitched slightly narrower seam allowances on the short edges to compensate. All the seams are flat-felled except for the armscye seam. I did flat-fell it on the white shirt, but I decided it was just too much trouble for not enough effect. Instead I serged the seam allowances and topstitched them down. Much easier. I love how neat it looks on the inside. I also changed the plackets slightly by extending them 1″ at the bottom and shortening the top pointy bit by 3/8″ to make it more square. You can’t really see it here, but I topstitched them with the classic X-in-a-box pattern you see on plackets a lot. The interfacing I used on this shirt is Fashion Sewing Supply‘s Light-Crisp Fusible. Their interfacing is always high-quality and this particular variety is perfect for this sort of shirt—it adds the necessary stiffness for crisp collars and cuffs, but it’s not excessively stiff like the normal Shirt-Crisp, which can look very starched. The mother-of-pearl buttons are also from Fashion Sewing Supply. As a finishing touch, I appliquéd a heart onto the inner yoke. It’s not visible from the outside, but it’s a cute little label that I’ll see every time I put it on. Sort of a maker’s mark. I used a quilting cotton I bought in Hawai’i years ago with sea turtles on it, although there aren’t any on that particular scrap. I love the idea of doing fun subtle touches on things that I make; I’ll probably play around with putting things on inner yokes or collars or cuffs in the future. I really gotta hand it to the ladies at Sewaholic, they can put a pattern together! This was a great second round with Granville, but it definitely won’t be my last. Expect to see several more of them in the future, each with their own particular charm. :) (The pups helped me with my photoshoot. That’s Brutus on the left, my SIL’s dog Jane Austen in the middle, and Teddy on the right. They were very enthusiastic helpers. Jane’s unfortunately on the injured reserve list and will be taking a break from helping; she’s torn a ligament and needs surgery, poor pup.)