his anniversary present

I made a linen shirt for Matt as an anniversary present. I made it from our "wedding linen," which is what I call the 10 yards of natural linen that I bought last year to use as table runners at our wedding reception. I've been using this linen in projects all year long, and I still have about 3 yards left. It seemed appropriate to make Matt's anniversary present from the wedding linen. And it was one of the few fabrics in my stash that was appropriate for a man's shirt. I need to remember to look for more male-friendly fabrics when I am fabric-shopping.

I used McCall's 6044, which is the same pattern I used for the long-sleeve shirt I made for him this past winter. It's a nice pattern and fits him well, though I think in the future I will make the sleeves a bit slimmer for a more modern fit.

I was surprised by how easy it was to work with the linen, since I've sometimes found linen a bit slippery to sew. (I always think of it as "squigy" though that is not a real word, is it?) In this project, though, everything came together nicely. I love how crisp linen gets when you iron it, makes sewing hems so much easier.

We took these pictures in front of our new flower beds outside the fence. I'm proud of these beds because we created them from scratch. It's all been a bit of an experiment. Last year, we started with roses and clematis on the arbor, flanked by monarda, yarrow, and hollyhocks. The hollyhocks did nothing the first year and are only just getting going now. They have been plagued by rust and are still looking quite spindly. I need to figure out if there's anything I can do for that. This year, I added nepeta, african daisies, and pink cosmos in the front of the bed. I love the nepeta, and it hides the gangly legs of the hollyhock and monarda perfectly.

The one hollyhock that has managed to grow to full height this year is lovely. I need to figure out how to get the others happy, because these beauties are worth the effort.

Tomorrow I'll post about my anniversary presents. I think Matt's superpower is thoughtful gift-giving. He is awfully good at it.