I think it pretty much goes without saying that sewing winter stuff is not as light and happy as sewing summer stuff. Dresses and skirts and little tops can be churned out at a pace and are fun and not too taxing. But trousers, jeans, coats, jackets, sweaters - if you’re a knitter - are much more time consuming and daunting. And let’s be honest not as exciting to wear.

I say this but I do love making a coat. I have many many coats which is kind of ridiculous really. For a large part of the winter I can only wear the ubiquitous RTW puffer that wards off the north-east US elements, but I love making them so blithely I continue. But also, when you spend so much of the year covered up it’s nice to show your style and some variety on the outside, when all the rest of the lovely handmade stuff is hidden underneath.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve also really got into making trousers (I made these jeans - see below).

Actually I think this means I’m complaining about nothing and just need to find my motivation and start cracking on with all the ideas I have in my head, for the holes in my wardrobe.

I can practically hear my cousin rolling her eyes at this - she is astounded by the number of clothes I have and looks bewildered when I say that I really need X to wear with Y. It’s the same look my sister and I give our mum, when she says things along the same lines. Her clothing habit is a little out of control … it seems the apple does not, as they say, fall far from the tree.

So for winter sewing it seems I’m drawn to trousers and coats, but then I have nothing to go with them. Even before I got back into sewing, I always struggled to find tops that I liked.

I’m not a huge fan of (button-down) shirts. Incidentally before I moved to the US I thought ‘button-down’ meant those shirts that have little buttons on the collar. But no, every top is a shirt here, so to distinguish an actual shirt it’s a button-down - or - if it’s one that might be worn to work or a more smart occasion and is generally not made of plaid, it is a ‘dress shirt’.

There are so many times words have got me in very confused situations in the six years I’ve lived here: the other day, I was talking to someone I don’t know very well about putting a date in my diary, he thought I was going to journal about a date with him (which we were not having) - I apparently should ‘mark’ my ‘calendar’ - still got a lot to learn it would seem.

Anyway - huge digression, I don’t like ‘button-downs’ mainly because they are often tight across the shoulders and slip back on my shoulders so that I’m constantly tugging them forward - so I don’t buy them. I do sometimes make them but forward shoulder, broad shoulder / upper back adjustments are always required to counter above issues and are not always applied.

I make the odd turtle neck (also, this is called a polo neck in the UK - turtle neck specifically applying to a high neck - but not one that folds over), but find them a bit claustrophobic and itchy.

I had a long affair with long cardigans in my mid-thirties and now can’t bear them.

Short-sleeved tops always need a sweater / cardigan over the top so seem kind of pointless to make in the winter. Plus there are so many VERY similar top patterns out there - none of which, frankly, inspire me greatly - that I don’t really know where to start.

I also have an issue in that I only ever seem to buy / make white tops, which is insanely dull and needs rectifying but my lack of surety on this issue makes me go for the safe option every time. (Yet I look at the related posts below and none of them are white …)

In short I need to get a top / blouse / shirt / tee / sweater-making grip.

Enter the Olya Shirt by Paper Theory. I’ve been keeping a casual eye on the versions I’ve seen around Instagram and other blogs and finally got around to addressing the need to explore the interesting style lines and sleeve construction. Plus I bought this spectacular Lady McIlroy fabric and it needed a really good home.

I originally bought it for this dress, but decided the print would be lost in the focus that the tie front of said dress commands and a bolder print was needed and subsequently used. I’m soooooo glad I made that call.

I also remembered a fabulous shirt by Mr Larkin that I lusted over a couple of years ago, but could not justify buying and this fabric hints at that. Actually it’s far superior.

And, I am so happy that for once, I managed a solid pattern / fabric pairing.

Apparently this fabric is all over the sewing community but I had no idea about this and thought I’d discovered a rare gem. It is a rare gem, but it isn’t only mine! And also apparently you can still find it many places.

Olya is a truly great pattern, honestly.

I used to be completely terrified about making shirts. I’ve had many a mishap with necklines stretching out, putting collars on upside down, terrible finish where collar meets placket, awful sleeve plackets with holes in them, over-cutting buttonholes and in one instance an issue with a flat-felled seam that involved some creative zigzagging on the armhole.

But I seem to have found my groove and don’t get so daunted by that anymore. This project, however, added a whole separate challenge: The tricky corner seams where the front yoke / sleeve is attached to the front shirt . I did manage them successfully and they lie flat but I’m worried that, because you have to snip so close to the seam line at the corner, they won’t stand up to wear and will create a hole.

Aside from that concern, the instructions on how to sew this part of the shirt are really really good and make it difficult to *uck up. That goes for all the instructions actually.

The element that I’m not sure about is the pockets. Not from a construction point of view - although it wasn’t that straight forward (instructions were still excellent) - but more aesthetically. I really love the idea, and the style line and how they are part of the one piece yoke / sleeve situation, but they do gape and are, for me, clearly just decorative. I may sew them up.

I didn’t do a forward shoulder adjustment due to the sleeve construction, but in hindsight could easily have done one. And I didn’t lengthen the sleeves which I should have done and will do if / when I make this again.

Incidentally, I’m going to post something about the standard fit adjustments I make to patterns and how I do them.

I should also talk about these jeans, which I haven’t written about previously. I made them last year, they are rubbed off and I used the Kenneth King tutorial on Craftsy or Bluprint or whatever it’s called, to do it. It was a really useful, if long, process and I like the jeans and the fit very much. The fact that I did god knows what wrong and had to add extra fabric at the fly and then put the zip in backwards and can’t change it because the fabric there is too fragile is beside the point. My butt looks good and I love the leg shape and stitching on the rear pockets.

Anyway, my hunt for a casually wearable, long-sleeved, interesting, non-tee, upper body-wear garment continues, but in the meantime, I will be greatly enjoying this beauty.

See you soon x

The Olya Shirt - thoughts on sewing 'shirts'