Pattern Review Menswear Contest

I love the Pattern Review Contests.  I've never won one, and admittedly I enter very few, but I do think the whole idea is pretty fun.

This year, I decided I'd like to enter a few.  The Menswear Challenge starts on Wednesday and runs until the 15th.

The Challenge: to make and review a menswear item in 2 weeks.  I can usually make a men's shirt in just a few days (the last one was a nightmare so therefore it doesn't count :o)), so I'm thinking I ought to be able to get at least one entry in before the deadline.

My Oldest Son always needs more dress shirts and my Second Oldest would like a new vest.  He's pretty much worn out the one I made for him a year or so ago.

I washed a dried two different fabrics for dress shirts today.  Both are Catalina yarn-dyed shirtings from Fabric.com -- they had a ton of these last year and I bought yardage of every single one that I thought would make good men's shirts.

The first one is gray with threads of orange running through it.  It didn't photograph well, but it's a nice fabric.

It's got a bit of lycra in it, so it's a stretch shirting, but I don't think that matters at all.

 The other is an olive green and cream stripe.  This will go well with pants he already has.  This fabric doesn't have stretch, but since the pattern doesn't call for a stretch woven, this one's okay, too.  What I don't like about this fabric is that it wrinkled horribly in the dryer.  Maybe it's because I washed a 6 yard piece.  And maybe it's one of those fabrics that just give you a headache.  Either way, it'll make a nice shirt.  Even if I have to swear mightily every time I iron it.

The pattern is Burda 6676.  I've already detailed working with this pattern since I've made 5 or 6 of these since this time last year.  Since it's a TNT pattern, it had better not argue with me this time.

As for vest fabrics, I have a stash of nice wools in assorted earth tones for my Second Son to choose from.  I'll have to talk to him about what he'd like.  I have a couple of grays, one or two browns, black of course, some interesting herringbones, and some greens coming in the mail this week.  I'm sure he'll find something he likes.

So that's my Contest Plan.  Not too ambitious, but ambitious enough to keep me interested and excited.  I think it'll be fun.