From Sushi Shirt to Sushi Tie

I've always been a fan of the hand-me-down, as well as the whimsical clothing find (case in point: my signs-of-the-zodiac, oh-so-acrylic vintage poncho). When a friend's friend was getting rid of clothing, I couldn't resist his sushi-print shirt: I didn't plan on wearing it, but I loved the fabric. So it sat in a closet for a few years (with a cat on top of it most of the time).

Finally, the opportunity arose to use it, to make a birthday gift for my sushi-loving, clothes-recycling, tie-wearing friend and coworker, Alex, whose birthday was back in December.

The shirt and its dismantling:

de-seamed and re-pinned (had to line up the sushis):

re-stitched and cut out:

 

 

sewn and pressed:

I chose a navy-blue polka-dot with daisies for the lining (I used a lightweight, knit interfacing [not shown] for the tie, and didn't fuse it to the fabric, but tacked it to the lining):

given, received, and modeled!:

I used the Power Tie pattern included in the book S.E.W.: Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp (a fine book with lots of good detail, especially for beginning sewers).

Alex loved it...
But wait, there's more!:
Alex is very allergic to cats!

Although I removed accumulated fur, washed and dried the shirt before starting the project, sewed most of the shirt at my sister's (catless) house, and, when I finished it at my house, kept my curious (sinister?) cat away from it, it still carried enough traces of feline-generated allergen residue to get Alex sneezing and sniffling by about 2 o'clock the day I gave it to him.

oh, the humanity (or, in this case, felinity).