Negroni Shirt for Mr Rae

There's just one more project I want to show you before we officially close up Celebrate the Boy this afternoon, the one item of clothing I managed to complete for the other "boy" in my life, Mr Rae:

I alluded to the fact that I had started on this shirt at the beginning of the month when it's designer Sarai of Colette Patterns was here as a guest and I've nearly had it finished for the last couple of weeks. I finished it yesterday just in time to let it slide in for Boy month. It's the Negroni Shirt by Colette Patterns and I really like this pattern. Alot. This version was meant to be the test version, and if you look closely you'll see that it's not perfect, but it's perfectly adequate for Mr Rae and I'm glad I made one with this shirting before busting into the more expensive Lightning Bug Dots I originally intended for the final version. Here you can get a nice view of those flat-felled sleeve seams:

This pattern has many nice features, but I think the best thing is that this really is a manageable project for the intermediate sewist. I prefer to "western" up my shirts a little and put the pearl snaps on there because I think taking the buttonhole step out (the most loathesome step in my opinion when constructing a mens' shirt) is laudable any way it can be managed. If snaps hadn't been invented you know I'd be putting a zipper or a nice long strip of velcro in there. Kidding (sortof).

{Ok, so I lied. It's not completely finished. I am waiting on two pearl snap tops for the cuff yet.}

a closeup of the fabric: the flowers are a pale pink; overall color is a cream/natural shade, accents are brown

For those who are still intimidated, let me give you a rough time breakdown and then you can either subtract time if you're a non-distracted type (unlike daydreamer me), or add time if you're new to sewing or just plain slow:

• Tracing and cutting out pieces took me a couple hours (maybe 2)
• Assembling the basic shirt (including sleeves, collar, front placket) took a few hours one evening (maybe 3)
• Adding cuffs, hemming, putting on the snaps, sewing on the pockets took a couple more hours (maybe 2 at most)

Does that sound like alot? See to me that's not too bad. I think that's a perfectly manageable largish sewing project, and if you really really love the person you're making it for, totally worth it. But my advice would be to never spend this much time on a jerk boyfriend.

UPDATED: I totally forgot to mention that I did read through Peter's Men's Shirt Sewalong before I made this shirt and would definitely recommend if you're thinking of attempting this or any other men's shirt! Thanks Tiphaine for the reminder!