The one and only Theo?

Another project for the husband. This time it was a big project, well not necessarily big, but at least a long project. I have seen the Theo by Zonen09 already several times. It is the perfect project for my husband as he often wears shirts, both to work and in his free time. I bought the pattern almost a year ago and wanted to start right away. But the instructions kind of scared me away, by that I mean the length of the instructions, 64 pages…

Right after the wedding (indeed half a year ago) it was time to do some sewing for my husband again so I started with the Theo. The first step was taking measurements and adapting the pattern to these measurements. Maybe this was actually my biggest fear. With kids if the pattern is not completely right, you can make it work. Especially with knits. With a shirt (in woven), I thought, if it is too small, I have done all that work for nothing. Of course I should first make a shirt in a cheaper fabric to see how the fit is. However, that is not my style, if I make something it should be with fabric that he likes and is going to wear. So I took the plunge and started in some lovely soft cactus fabric.

I love soft cactus fabric and think it is perfect for shirts for men. The fabric is so soft and has nice designs. So during a soft cactus sale I bought a lot of soft cactus, both for my husband, for our girls and for myself. My husband was not convinced of the fabric right away. He is more the conservative kind of guy. But in the end he was completely convinced, he loves it!

So after adapting the pattern according to the measurements I cut out the fabric and started with the shirt. I love the details of the pattern and the finishing of the shirt, it looks so professional! However, it takes some time to before it is finished. Especially some steps took me some time to understand. I am a person who looks at the pictures or photos in order to understand the text, but sometimes I found it difficult to see on the pictures what was mentioned in the text.

Then the scary part, fitting the end result. We did several fittings along the way and the fit seems great. However, after wearing the end result for a day there were some problems. It is basically too tight at the front of the shoulder (so just above the armpit on the front side). I have no idea what to do next time to change this. Does anybody have any ideas? Should I take a bigger size, for the width of the arm, or….

Theo by Zonen09

To be honest I am not sure whether I will make another one. I really love the result, and so does my husband. But not being sure how to adapt the pattern, is a risk. In the current size I have unpicked the side seams in the arm and top of the side seam and sewed with a seam allowance of 0.5 cm instead of 1 cm. This has helped a bit, but it is still not the way it should be. I am curious what you think I should do a next time.

Fabric: skew cube of soft cactus from Madeline de Stoffenmadam
Pattern: Theo (only available in Dutch at the moment) by Zonen09