liesl’s summer classic shirt

Hello friends!

I’ve been playing around with our Liesl + Co. Classic Shirt pattern lately and thought I’d show you a few of the things I’ve been trying, mostly to inspire you to get creative on your own with this wardrobe basic. I’ll be back with a post a week for the next month showing you something different each time.

Here’s the first of the several Classic Shirts I’ve made recently. (After all, what fun is sewing if you can’t sew for yourself once in a while, right?)

For summer I thought it would be nice to replace a frequently worn linen popover shirt that’s wearing out. The original, purchased shirt has cut-on sleeves (previously known in fashion terminology as kimono sleeves, but since that term isn’t technically accurate we’ll call them cut-on sleeves instead, OK?). One thing I’ve noticed about this style of sleeve is that it’s not always successful for fuller-busted women, since it leaves a lot of extra fabric above the bust and in front of the shoulder. So I thought I’d show you that you can achieve a similar, but better-fitting result, with a set-in sleeve.

For this shirt, I simply sized up and and shortened. Where I usually sew myself a size 6, or a size 8 if I want a more generous fit, for this shirt I sewed a size 12. I also shortened the hem by 1 1/2″ to get a slightly cropped look. Keep in mind that I’m long waisted, so if you shorten you might go more like 2 1/2″. (I nearly always lengthen patterns by 1″ when I sew for myself.)

I also replaced the button placket with our free popover placket pattern piece and tutorial, which is a fun and versatile change you can make to the Classic Shirt pattern.

And that’s it! You can see that increasing the size doesn’t completely overwhelm my body, and the shortened hem helps to keep everything in proportion.

Since Madrid and New York are both so hot in the summer, I prefer to wear lightweight woven fabrics that have plenty of ease built into them. I usually wear this shirt with my City Stroll Wrap Skirt on the hottest days of the summer, and I’m looking forward to wearing this one!

You can pick up your own copy of our Classic Shirt pattern right here. Of course we also have our men’s All Day Shirt and our Buttoned-Up Button-Down shirt for kids. Or, if you prefer a simpler style for children without the two-piece collar, our Sketchbook Shirt pattern has been a very popular pattern over the years, in part because of its easy-to-sew once-piece collar.

Go have fun and stay cool!