You do a great job sewing Lars!

I love un-ironed linen and agree nothing is as cool in hot weather as wearing loose white linen.

edited to add I have my grandmother's button boxes and one of them, an old tea tin is filled with small MoP buttons - they are just lovely on their own and dress up a simple linen shirt like yours just enough.

The only linen items I have are pillow cases and napkins. For both, I smooth and gently stretch them flat on my kitchen island, turning them a few times while they are drying. That would work for handkerchiefs, I think.

The shirt you made looks wonderful.

Since I don't have any padded hangers, I might try wrapping some scrap linen around a plastic one instead.

In L.A., I have a shower curtain rod that I drape things over to dry, but I don't have that here, as my shower has a glass door.

I don't want to dry anything white outside here, as we get a lot of dust.

Ooooh. I want one! Yes’ you have a wonderful talent!!

You are so talented!!

Classic summer shirt. Have you checked out Fabrics-Store.com? Most of what they sell is 100% linen. Their prices are pretty good too. If you are on their mailing list, they send out special buys on basics (white, natural or black) in their most popular fabrics.

Bellissimo!

Another great shirt by you, Lars. I love the vintage buttons--nice touch!

Well done....I hate working with wriggly fabric!

Lars, you have some crazy sewing skills! I am so impressed. I remember many years ago, I was an inexperienced seamstress. My grandmother had given me an old sewing machine so I practiced a bit and could sew a pretty straight line. So I bought a pattern and material and set about making a western shirt for my SO. Not just any shirt though! No, this was a western cut long sleeve shirt with pearlized snaps instead of buttons. I even embroidered roses on the back yoke. Haha. I was a bit over ambitious but never again!

I too love linen, but have not sewn with it. I wear lots of linen sundresses here in Florida. I dry my linen clothing on padded hangers and my sheets in the dryer on low until almost dry and then lay across the bed until completely dry.

If you have big enough scraps you could make some kitchen towels. Linen is great to dry dishes with.

That looks like an amazing shirt, stylish and comfortable. I imagine you find it difficult to buy clothes since you know exactly how things should be put together.

A boring shirt? Nope, it’s very nice, and far from boring. You have such skills, Lars.

Very nice. Linen is my go-to fabric for summer in TX. I wash on cold, dry slightly in dryer, finish drying flat. If needed, touch up with steamer.

Lars - love your classic linen shirt. Your attention to detail is just wonderful!

The shirt does look better in person as it has a slight shimmer to it, and so it does look different from cotton - notice in photo 2 how it looks different from the ironing board.

I'll remember to wash in cold water. I sometimes put linen in the dry on the air cycle, but since the humidity here is so low, it does dry quite quickly. I do have several good steam irons.

I did buy the fabric from fabrics-store.com, and I did notice that they have a good selection of linen. I do like to feel the fabric before I buy it, but the linen I selected had a lot of good reviews praising how soft it felt. After I washed the fabric and put it through the dryer, Kevin said that they dryer lint was the softest he had ever felt. I do feel that this makes the fabric more difficult to work with, however.

Now Kevin wants me to make one for him, but I will wait until after Labor Day.

I also bought a Cooper mini iron so that it will be easier for me to make the details on the pocket.

What I do like about linen is that you can finger press it, and it will stay in place.

The very first shirt I made on a sewing machine was a Western style with a yoke that was curved and pointed, and it came out the way I wanted. It was also patchwork, made with recycled fabric that I got from a thrift store for cheap. I had bought cotton skirts for the fabric and paid about ten cents for each skirt. This was around 1973.

Great shirt Lars. You do such nice work. One of my sewing goals is to find and make the perfect fitting blouse, but I have a mental block on sewing right now and am afraid to even cut out a cushion for a footstool! I don’t have a good source for linen, but this is a great resource for vintage buttons and trim near me.

https://www.vintagedesignresource.com/pages/GildingtheLily.htm

Thanks for that link - I'll save it for the next time I'm in Fullerton or O.C.

I saw a Youtube video on making a padded hanger with bubble wrap, and so I think I will do that rather than buy padded hangers.

Which linen did you use? The one I found trickiest to work on was the open weave. If I work with it again, I think I will use the quilter's trick of starching the fabric well before cutting. It will wash out after the garment is finished.

And call me for a coffee when you do come!!!

Lars I often dry a shirt or sweater either on the ironing board or the bed. That beautiful shirt should dry very quickly that way.

I want one! That's beautiful Lars. :)

Hmmm... I thought I had responded to this, but maybe not.

This is the fabric that I used. IL018 Bleached, softened 100% linen. I'll try starching it before I cut out the next shirt, but I'll have to buy some starch, as I do not have any here. I think that is a good idea. I will also wash the starch out before wearing the shirt, but it should make construction quite a bit easier.

I do think drying on the ironing board is a good idea - I'll do that when I wash it.

I hang my cabana jackets on hooks in the patio to dry, and they take no time outdoors. It's 105° today and is supposed to get to 120° by Sunday, although I doubt that it will.

1929Spanish-GW, I'll definitely let you know when I am in O.C. next time, but it will have to be after the pandemic.

tannatonk23, I do plan to make some kitchen towels, since you mentioned it.

I have some leftover terry cloth, and I'm wondering if I could make lined towels with linen on one side and terry cloth on the other. I might as well try it with some of my scraps. I would only use the waffle pattern terry cloth.

I also thought about making linen kitchen towels that are double sided linen. These would be good for drying crystal and glass, and the towels can be any shape, as far as I am concerned. The kitchen towels I have in L.A. are from Turkey, and they are some special blend that is lint-free, but I don't remember exactly what, and I don't have them here.

I'll consider ordering some more linen after I make the second shirt - I might decide that I don't want to deal with it for a while. Anyway, I have other fabrics that I need to use.

If your brother doesn't want one, may I send you my size? Beautiful job, Lars!

What a beautiful shirt! I can see why it took you three days to make it, the details like collar points look perfect. You certainly have a talent for textiles!

I love linen and wear it almost exclusively In the summer. I hang my linen shirts on a wooden, shaped hanger to dry, and then they are ironed. In fact I have a white linen boxy shirt from Eileen Fisher that looks very much like yours. It’s cool and comfortable and cute, basically all my requirements for a summer shirt. I’ve been looking for a linen camp shirt in case you (or anyone) knows of a retailer.

I love your classic white linen shirt, Lars. It's beautiful. It would've have taken me a week!

I'm currently making a pair of linen slacks in navy for my daughter with what I think is the same linen from fabrics-store.com. you used. I'm sorry it slipped for you. I've never noticed a problem with slipping, and I've sewn a lot of linen. I wonder what the difference is.

I've had a rule for years that sometimes annoys my children: I sew with natural fabrics only - cotton, linen, silk, wool. Though synthetics are beautiful, I find them difficult to sew and uncomfortable to wear.

You're going to love that iron, Lars! I use mine all the time. I also love my mini Clover wand iron for perfect tiny places.

Keep sewing!!!

The softened and signature finish versions can be a little more to the slippery side.

Lars, if you want to make heavier kitchen towels, watch their doggie bag section for the 4C22 weight. The cuts that are a yard or less are deeply discounted. Even at regular price, it isn't a bad price when you can get several out a yard. I have some kitchen towels my husband brought back from a trip that are similar to the weight of the IL019 if not the IL020. I was a little concerned they were too lightweight, but I love them as much as my heavier ones, so you might not need to double up. I plan to make some bath towels with the 4C22 or the jacquard and the waffle weave they had for a matter of hours (not the mini waffle on the site now) if they get it back in stock. I had the jacquard and wound up making a throw for a wedding gift and really liked that too, Now I need to make those towels.

Thanks, Lascatx. I didn't know that.

Hmm - I thought linen doesn't shrink? Isn't hot water OK for white, undyed linen? Thinking of napkins, sheets and tablecloths...

I find it fairly easy to work with, but I've never tried with extra lightweight fabric, just medium to heavy weights. I also appreciate how easy it is to finger press, so you don't have to keep running to the ironing board.

Basting is your friend🙂

Linen will shrink the first time it is laundered. How much depends on the weave and the finish. I usually wash linen warm and with a gentle detergent, tumble low to lightly dry (sheets) or hang to dry (clothing). The waffle weaves and jacquards will shrink more, especially if you wash hot -- the signature finish shrinks the least (almost none, they say but I have't tested it). Table linens tend to be very finely and fairly densely woven. I don't think they would shrink as much and may be prewashed or sized for anticipated shrinkage.

Lars, we spent a summer in Scottsdale AZ when our first child was a toddler, staying in my snowbird parents’ winter home. The dryer had died. But I could hang even towels fresh from the spin cycle over the backs of the patio chairs in the 120 degree heat and they’d be completely dry in 2 hours. They’re not kidding when they say “it’s a dry heat”! But even the pool wasn’t refreshing, it was more like a bathtub. Not bad for a toddler, though.

Our pool is like a bathtub right now, and so it is not refreshing, but it's still okay.

The linen I bought did not shrink much when I washed it, as it was already pre-shrunk, but it did shrink a bit. I'll wash the shirt in cool water, but I won't put it in the dryer except perhaps on air dry with no heat. Most of the shrinking happens in the dryer, especially if it is hot.

It is a lot easier to work with heavier linen, but I wanted a light-weight shirt. I probably could have bought one for less than what I paid for the fabric, but at least this way I get it to fit exactly the way I want it.

I found the custom fabric that I bought for the next cabana jacket, and so I will make that next. Cabana jackets are almost impossible to find, and so it is more practical to make those. Even though they are fully lined, they are easier to make than this shirt - at least for me. I've also drafted some of my own fabric designs and will order that next time.

Lars, I recognized the fabric right away! I love the offerings from that source!

Your shirt is lovely!

Have you seen the waffle weave that they offer? They say that it makes great towels and such.

Linen is such a wonderful fabric to feel next to your skin! You can even layer linen in the colder months and still wear it.

I just despise wearing synthetics, well, most synthetics.

I have one pair of pants that I made from fabric that I ordered online some years ago. I knew that it was a synthetic knit but I was not prepared for just how synthetic it actually is. It has a large and loose knit structure to it. Anyway, I cut out a new to me pattern from it and did not like it much. I hung it up on the door hanger where it lived for a very long time until I decided that I would tackle it or get rid of it. I tackled it and finished it and those pants have become the pants that wear like iron. That has pros and cons to it. On the one hand they are always in perfect shape, dry almost by shaking out the water, never fade. They fit well and they are black, so they go with just about everything. The con is that the fabric is so open that the wind just goes right through as if you were wearing nothing at all. They are cold in the winter, despite the weight of the fabric being on the heavy side, and they are hot in the summer being that they are synthetic and heat absorbing black. They make great things for this in-between days and they pack so well.

I have a love/hate relationship with them.

Most of my other pants are linen or cotton or washable wool.

Linen even feels different from cotton on the skin.

I know that cotton, and probably linen also, has an impact on the environment but that synthetic fabric has a high footprint and will not decompose. I really believe that there could be some wise trade offs to eliminate some the production of the synthetics and maybe we would have more environmental room to grow more natural fibers, and maybe agricultural technology and wisdom could be applied to growing natural fibers a better way and to develop better strains. So much tech and so many resource are being applied to trying extract and reclaim fibers from synthetics. Why not put that effort into making better what we already have, such as cotton and linen?

You linen shirt is beautiful but don't wear it while eating tomato sauce or mustard or curry. You know how that always turn out, don't you?

I agree with you a out synthetics, Dallas Annie. We've switched our focus from natural to synthetic in practically everything these days.

Have any of you sewn anything with double gauze? I'd never heard of it until a few days. ago when a friend gave me a remnant from her burp cloth project. She said it was easy to sew, but then, she was making burp cloths... no curves or shape at all. She gave me about a yard. It seems perfect for summer pull on pants or a caftan for a girl or maybe even a camp shirt.

I haven't looked online yet. My friend said her daughter-in-law bought it on line and asked my friend to make the burp cloths, so I know it's out there, but I've been lazy about it. Besides, I don't need to make burp cloths right now so am wondering about other uses. 😀

It is my opinion that double gauze would not be the first choice for garment fabric. I think that it is best suited to utilitarian purposes. It's loose structure does not let it slide against itself. That is the property that lends it to staying in place as a burb cloth or staying wrapped tightly around the tiny infant. I think that you always feel as if you were wrapped in swaddling and, unless you are a tiny baby, that is not what you want.

If you were to construct a pair of pants out of it I think you would have a consistent knot in your knickers. They would likely bunch up.

I'm so glad I asked! Thanks, dallasannie. Excellent points I wouldn't have thought of.

Looks so comfortable and elegant! You have amazing skills, Lars!

Lars - relative to the pool....a friend of ours buys block ice and dumps it in his pool when it gets hot. They have a huge 1950's era pool that's 9' at the deep end here in North OC. Not sure if it might help also in the desert.

The pool has cooled off, and last night we went in the spa for the first time in weeks. The pool was 86° (I prefer 87°), and we heated the spa to 103°, which was a bit too warm. Weather was in the 90s, and so it felt pleasant.

Here's the new cabana jacket I made

Since the pockets are lined with terry cloth, the pattern does not appear to line up exactly when viewed from certain angles - this was the best I could do with this pattern. Also, the pattern shifted slightly when I pre-washed it, but it's busy enough that I think that won't matter.

I'll have to order more fabric to make the next one, and it will have thick terry cloth (for winter) like the first one I made. I do like the waffle weave terry cloth, however.

This was easier to make than the linen shirt because this fabric did not shift around while I was working with it.

For comparison with the linen shirt I made, I ordered at $22 linen shirt from Amazon, and while I like it a lot, I like the one I made better. The one from Amazon has a shirttail hem at the bottom, and I prefer the straight bottom that I made. The pocket I made is nicer.

I love it! Nice work. No, beautiful work.

Yesterday I made a beautiful pair of linen pull-on pants. Everything went well and all stitching is perfect. Very last step: insert the cord through the tiny, perfectly placed button holes on the waistband and realized I sewed-and of course top stitched-the waistband to the pants BACKWARDS!! THe button holes are dead center over the center back seam. I swear I checked all four perfect pockets and made sure I put the waistband on the right way, but nooooo! I didn't. So infuriating. So darn dumb.

When I put a cord in a waistband, I insert it before I sew the last seam on the waistband.

I assume you will remove the waistband and reattach it. Does it also have elastic?

I made a slight goof on this jacket as well. I forgot to add the hanging loop (which is really essential, as we hang these jackets when we go in the pool), and so I had to remove the seam that attached the lining to the jacket at the collar, but only a small amount of seam, so that I could insert the loop. I noticed this before I did the top stitching on the sleeve openings and before I slip-stitched the bottom of the lining that I had left open for turning the jacket right side out, and so this was an easy fix.

I normally do not forget things like this, but I seem to be forgetting a lot of things lately. I forgot to add salt to my latest loaf of rye bread, but all I have to do now is add salty ingredients to my sandwiches, and they are fine.

It was impossible to clip the threads. I cut off the waistband and made a new one. I worked without the seam allowance on the pants, so it worked out. Yes, there is elastic and a draw cord.

I hate being forgetful, but it's nothing new for me. Thirty or more years ago I made a striped dress shirt for my husband with two left sleeves. He wore that shirt with the sleeves rolled up for several years.

I love rye with salt and caraway on the crust.

For the rye bread, I could add salt to some butter and put that on it, but I've been eating it as it is.

I made a Lycra shirt for a friend once, which was black and yellow with a diagonal seam down the front and back, with one yellow sleeve and one black sleeve. One day I happened to see him walking down the street near my flat in San Francisco, and I said, "David! You are wearing the shirt backwards!" He said, "How can I tell - there is no label!" (He was really into labels, and I was not.) Anyway, I told him that the back is larger than the front, and you can also tell from the neck, which scoops down more in the front than in the back. Anyway, he took the shirt off while we were still on the sidewalk and put it on correctly. Because it was Lycra, the sleeves were pretty forgiving, but I'm sure it felt a lot better when he wore it correctly.

Here's a photo of David in a matching bathing suit but without the shirt😞