Over the last couple of months I have been piecing this The Ellsworth by Merchant & Mills together one seam at a time for display in the shop. It is a beautiful, classic white shirt and I am very proud of the end result.
The Ellsworth shirt has a two-piece collar, button placket and sleeve cuffs. This was the first time I had sewn a two-piece collar and I found that part relatively easy. I very much enjoyed hand-stitching the collar in place.
The pattern is honest when stating the sewing level and in the case of The Ellsworth it is marked as intermediate. I assume they expect the sewer to have done these technics before, therefore the instructions for techniques like the continuous-bound sleeve were a bit light on—I needed to look further on the internet for some more in-depth instructions and I found some helpful tutorials on YouTube. All that is to say, I enjoyed the challenge that these tailored details brought to the project and feel the final result makes the time taken to hand stitch sections in places worth it.
The pattern comes in two size ranges, UK6–18 or UK18-28- up to a 139.5 cm/ 55 inch bust. I made a size 10 with no alterations. I am planning to make another, next time I will alter the length of the arms to fall at my wrist.
The style of the shirt is an oversized boxy silhouette with a cuffed sleeve that falls just below the elbow. The pattern states that because of the way the shirt hangs lower at the back to use medium to lighter weight fabric because anything heavy is likely to pull down, making the neck uncomfortable. I used a crisp 100% cotton poplin for this shirt. The fabric is available in store. The buttons are 12mm shell buttons (colour 75.)
The combination of the poplin with this pattern was perfect and I would recommend and use both again myself.