Willamette Shirt

Hi friends! Back in February, I made my first Hey June Patterns Willamette shirt. It was shirt month at Indiesew and I wanted to make some sort of shirt since it had been a while since I’d made one.

Last year I said it was going to be my year of the shirt/shirtdress, but that really didn’t happen. I made an Archer and two Cheyenne shirts but didn’t get to any of the shirt dress patterns that were on my list.

I love shirt making (other than the cutting of the fabric/interfacing. There are just so many pieces!) So this year I want to try to make a few of the shirts/dresses this year that I didn’t get to last year.

I was hoping to make a Cheyenne for shirt month but my sewing list got out of control and I ran out of time. On February 27th I decided to see if I could sew a Willamette in a day.

It turns out that I was able to do it since this shirt doesn’t have a collar stand or cuff plackets. As far as shirts go, this camp style is pretty quick to sew. I had fun slamming the whole thing into one day but took a few days off from sewing once it was done… and I made sure to take a little more time with my next project.

My inspiration for this shirt was this Willamette made by my friend Heidi. As soon as I saw hers I ordered the same fabric so I could make my own version.

The fabric is a really nice, soft cotton/hemp shirting from Imagine Gnats. I cut a size 10 graded to a 14 and did a 1/2″ forward shoulder adjustment. I only had 1.5 yards of fabric and I barely squeezed all of my pieces on my yardage.

My Willamette is view A, which is designed to have only 1 button and then the rest of the button placket is sewn closed. I opted to put buttons/buttonholes down the whole placket. I wanted to be able to tie the shirt at the waist or do a half tuck.

There is a really cool burrito method used in the construction of the Willamette that attaches the yoke and the placket facings. It definitely blew my mind when I was sewing it. I am spatially challenged so I would never be able to figure out this kind of thing on my own.

I’m very pleased with how my copycat shirt turned out! Our Spring hasn’t been much of a Spring so far (we’ve had 2 snowstorms in April) so I haven’t gotten to wear this shirt yet. Here’s hoping that we get some good short sleeve shirt weather in May and I can finally start wearing it!

~Teri