Having never made a shirt, I thought the hardest part might be the sleeves, but I was wrong. The collar turned out to be the most difficult part and was nearly impossible to attach to the shirt. It literally took me ten or fifteen attempts at pinning, unpinning, repinning, basting, unpinning, unbasting, pinning and then re-basting again to finally get it right. That’s a lot of pins, some seriously soar, pin-pricked fingers, and more than a few swear words. But I persevered and eventually showed the collar who is boss.

The collar itself actually turned out quite nice for having never made one before.

Preparing the interfacing for the collar and the neckband.

As the title suggests, this is a buttonless ‘button down shirt.’ I still haven’t found the manual for the sewing machine and am beginning to think that I just need to order another one. Attempting button holes without it seems a little daunting at this point in my sewing ‘career.’

Overall the shirt was a great practice piece. I used McCall’s pattern #2447, which is the same package that The Vest came in. The cut is a bit loose and baggy, but otherwise it fits. Here is a picture of the “finished” shirt without buttons.

Pocket close up.

Back yoke.

Placket.