McCall's 2205

Fabrics:
Spoonflower “Space Machines by Todd” in cotton lawn.

McCall’s 2205 (published 1999) has been in my pattern collection since my son was little. Back then, I used it to make matching camp shirts for him and my husband, usually train-related prints. As he matured and his interests changed, so did the shirts. He now possesses quite a collection of shirts in (mostly) aircraft and spacecraft related prints. (I still sew for my husband – his shirts are themed with the topics he covers in his microbiology and physiology lectures. No more daddy-son matching outfits!)

Since I prefer fabrics with such esoteric subjects, I usually look to Spoonflower.com for prints. Over the years, I have used a variety of their fabrics. My experience is that Spoonflower’s Petal Signature Cotton tends towards muddy colors. I prefer their organic cotton sateen or cotton poplin weight fabrics for these shirts. This time, I tried their cotton lawn because my son lives in a hot climate. The fabric was simultaneously too stiff (from the ink) and too thin to drape nicely. I found that the colors were a bit muddy as well. (Note: I’ve also used Spoonflower’s man made fibers for other projects. The print is significantly more brilliant on the manmade fibers.)

I noticed, when I’d finished his last shirt, that my son’s posture was maturing. He has a high round back, a slight forward head, and forward shoulders; these are not uncommon alterations in tall people who spend their lives working on computers. I thought that he would benefit from a back yoke, which accommodates all of these alterations, so I altered the back pattern piece to create separate yoke and pleated back pieces. I shaped the front and back to create shirttails. Because pattern matching is an issue in the large Spoonflower prints, I reduced the number of pattern pieces by creating a cut-on front facing. For the cut on facing, I used Susan Huxley’s instruction from her book Sewing Secrets from the Fashion Industry.

In all, I think that the fit of the altered shirt pattern is excellent. The lawn, though a bit disappointing in weight, looks good. Most importantly, he likes it!