It always feels a bit of an honour when your children ask you to make them something, especially when they are a trendy 18 year old, it’s like the ultimate accolade that what you are creating must be at least OK!!

I’ve made a couple of shirts this year and in the autumn Helen asked me if I would make her one. I was delighted to accept the commission!!

As I still had a few shirt lengths in my stash, I checked with her if she fancied any of them. To my surprise she chose a fine embroidered cotton. I bought it last year in Goldhawk Road in London, it was about 60″ wide and cost about £2.50 per metre! It is a lovely fine cotton with quite a heavy paisley like embroidered design. I’ve made a summer top from it already but there was still loads left. I earmarked it for Helen…the weeks went by and Christmas was coming…I decided to make it as a surprise Christmas present.

The shirts I’ve been making are fairly loose fitting, I decided to make Helen a slightly slimmer fitting shirt. I chose Burda 6849 as it has darts front and back. I’ve made a few Burda patterns up and luckily over the years I’ve made quite a few shirts as I’d forgotten just how minimalist Burda instructions are!!!

I cut it out to a size 8, I had to guess and keep my fingers crossed, I could hardly ask her when it was a surprise! I tried where possible to avoid having the embroidered areas over a narrow seam, cutting out the button band and the collar band near to the selvage where the embroidery was lighter.

I French-seamed all the main seams. The pattern has a straight yoke, a two piece collar and sleeve plackets. As I mentioned before, the instructions were pretty basic, I couldn’t follow their method for the sleeve placket at all, so I did my own thing! The collar turned out pretty neat and I was really pleased with finished shirt but I had to wait to Christmas day to see if it passed the test!

She likes it! I think she may have been better with a size 10, as it’s a little snug in places. Apologies for the photo but she refused to let me iron it first! I thought the sleeves were too short at first, but no, she’s turned the cuffs up! She feels it’s a bit long, but otherwise she likes it 🙂