Pirate Shirts are Big

Well, I finished the construction of the shirt from Simplicity 4923, the pirate costume. As I mentioned earlier, it was a very simple shirt, and I made it difficult for myself by deciding to embroider it.

It uses a dropped shoulder as a feature, and unfortunately they accomplish this by making the main torso section huge. They could have chosen a yoke, like the style of Simplicity 3519, and had the torso fit more comfortably.


It looks fine when you add the vest over top of it, but unfortunately its styling makes it impossible to use as a standalone shirt. It looks so big as to be ridiculous.
Nonetheless, here are its details: the fabric is a slightly off-white linen. It's a medium-lightweight fabric, so it won't be transparent but it will be comfortable in the heat. The cuffs and the neckline are embroidered (you'll probably have to click on the pictures to see the detail):

The design is very simple, as I am quite new to the embroidery scene, and I found it here. It's obviously originally a lot more delicate and dainty, but I thought that if I enlarged the scale, turned it around so the points faced inward, and used a larger thread, it would become more masculine, and I think I succeeded.

From The Needles Excellency

It's obviously a counted cross-stitch design, and therefore meant to be used on a finer, more even-weave fabric. So instead of counting threads, I printed out the design, then put it underneath the fabric and took a fabric marker to make dots where all the lines met, then lightly drew the design between the dots.
Having finished it now, I think I would have been better to chose a less grid-based design. I suspect I'm better at the more rounded and free-form stuff. I'll have to give that a try next.