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Tinkering: 2026-02-28: Simon #6 Shirt
On several occasions, while browsing fabrics, I found batik fabrics in
stunningly saturated colours, and I just had to get them. To make use of
them, another Simon shirt was the basis for a plan, and I
decided to find out how vibrant rainbow colours contrast with black.
The pattern is the same as before, but this shirt has no collar, only a collar stand, and it is a single front piece with only a short button placket at the top. The rest of the button placket is for decoration only, like in Simon #4.
The button placket and pocket are red, the left arm cuff and sleeve placket
are orange/yellow, the right arm cuff and sleeve placket are green/blue, and
the collar is violet.
The button placket is only for two buttons at the top, and I opted for a
concealed button placket again, because the red fabric is thin enough to
allow three folds.
While all the other parts are cotton, the red fabric is rayon, so it is very soft, and I was afraid it would not work together well, but it is OK. I did use another layer of interfacing (some cotton) to make the placket less flimsy. The rayon also takes pleats surprisingly well, so pressing is not problem.
For this shirt, five different thread colours were used. The main color used
by default is violet. I thought about using black, but I wanted some accents.
For the buttons and button holes, black is used.
The green and blue fabric uses cyan coloured thread. It looks very nice from the back side, too. It is tempting to make another shirt where the batik is all hidden, but the coloured threads are visible on the outside.
For the welt pocket and button placket, red thread is used.
The left cuff is orange/yellow and bright orange thread is used. This also
looks great from the back side.
I used a different technique for the cuffs that is easier (in my opinion) to attach to the sleeve, and also makes the outside look a bit neater, but my technique is not yet perfect, so the seams are a bit crooked. It's only really visible on the inside, though.
You can also see particularly well in this picture that the black fabric attracts lint and the black colour emphasizes it well...
This is the left cuff. It is a pine-apple themed batik fabric in yellow
and orange colours.
And the right cuff. This is indeed not cyan coloured, but it is two
parts: green and blue. I also like this fabric very much.
And again, I used interfacing with a matching colour. Some purple interfacing
is used in the collar stand to match roughly with the violet.
And orange/yellow fabric is used as interfacing for the left cuff.
And I hand-emboidered my logo again, of course.
This is the back pleat for more freedom of movement. This detail worked well again!
There are two variations I might want to make, all combinations of black with colourful batik fabrics. One variation is to make a shirt where all the colourful fabrics are inside instead of outside. In some spots, the colours should be visible, and I think the colourful thread alone will be very nice.
The second variation is to select one of the four colour fabrics from this shirt, and use it for all details. I cannot make up my mind which fabric to use first, I only know that the red one is last, mainly because it is rayon and handling is a bit tricky, but also because I don't think red-black alone will be great. I think I will use either yellow/orange or violet first.
