Making a Classic Shirt with Bill Voetberg    

I have been quiet on my blog lately for one simple reason.  Probably like most of you, I have been extremely busy!  One of my projects was making items to contribute to a church bazaar in Indiana.  My daughter, Marcia Rush, passed away last year from cancer.  She loved helping with her church’s bazaar, so I decided to contribute items last year and again this year in her memory.  This year I made crib sheets, baby bibs, and twisted infinity scarves for the bazaar.   With the help of Marcia’s family in Indiana, those items were set up with an “In Memory of Marcia Rush” sign and picture at the bazaar on Saturday, October 28^th. 

Another of my projects was fitting a shirt pattern.  Sewing would be so much easier if I could just pick a pattern, cut out a garment and have it actually fit me with no alterations needed!  Anyway, I worked on Kwik Sew #3555 shirt pattern for almost a week.  I decided at that point it was as good as I could make it for now.  The next day I went to a three day shirt class taught by Bill Voetberg in Wyoming, Michigan at Lakeshore Sewing.

Bill did a trunk show for the Lansing Chapter American Sewing Guild (ASG) in September.  He showed many of his beautiful shirts.  Several of us were interested in taking a class from him.  Although we had made shirts in the past, we knew Bill was using techniques that would improve the quality of our shirts.  And we were not disappointed!

He showed us an easy technique to match stripes in the shirt placket to the stripes in the sleeve.  We also were shown a technique for folding back the front facings before cutting the fronts.  He also demonstrated his technique for applying the pocket and sewing the neckband and collar. 

There were eight students in the class and most of us were at different skill levels ranging from just beyond beginner to expert.  Bill managed to keep control of the class and kept us moving along.  This was a fast moving class which lasted only 15 hours, so not everyone completed the shirt in that amount of time.   I believe those who did not complete the shirt in class will be able to complete it at home using the knowledge gained from Bill’s demonstrations.  I finished my shirt yesterday. 

I enjoyed the class and liked Bill’s method of presentation.  No matter what problems we had with our shirts, Bill’s response was always, “Don’t worry.  We will handle it.”  And he did even though we were working with several different shirt patterns!  I would definitely take another class from him.

I hope each of you will take every opportunity to either learn a new sewing technique or improve a technique that is already familiar to you.  Have fun!

Judy