Celebrating Malaysia National Day 2023 with some handmade Terengganu batik fabrics made into breezy national flag themed button-up shirt for the son.
I was about to let this year's Merdeka / Malaysia Day pass without sewing anything. Then, a fellow sewist who I follow on Instagram posted her Merdeka sew with a popular catchy patriotic song and got my patriotic spirits all flared up (in Bahasa Malaysia, we say semangat membara-bara). Out comes my red, white, blue and yellow fabrics...
These are all handmade batik fabrics, but only the red and blue ones are from Terengganu (which is an East Coast state on the Malaysian Peninsular). The yellow fabric is one of the Pura Vida Batik fabrics by Shayla Wolf, leftover from my Peranakan Quilt No. 4 project. Not shown in the above picture is a yellow version of the Terengganu batik fabric, which I used as binding to finish the neckline and bottom hem of the shirt.
I have written about Malaysia's national flag, which we call Jalur Gemilang, in my earlier blog posts about my Merdeka garments for toddlers and my Jalur Gemilang Quilt.
This shirt was a short sew, maybe less than half a day. I dislike setting in sleeves so my go-to shirt pattern is almost always the dolman sleeves. Incidentally, dolman sleeves seem to suit my son very well.
The yellow crescent and 14-point star are cut out using my trusty Brother Scan N Cut, from the yellow fabric that has been applied with fusible web on the wrong side. After ironing the applique pieces onto the shirt fabric, I machine-sewed blanket stitches along the edges.
The buttons are KAM snap buttons, which I have stocked (and hoarded) since my baby garment sewing days. The button placket is reinforced with medium-weight iron-on interfacing.
We visited the Malaysian Royal Police Museum on Malaysia Day.
Let's see if he can still wear this next year!
