That’s how I felt as I began sewing with this turquoise Madras cotton.

This week is Stampede in Calgary, Canada. I love hearing about it and I’ve never been to it.

There are some great Calgary sewists in SewOver50 on Instagram.

I adore the outfits @Janine SewsSews each year to attend Stampede.

When I ordered this fabric, I had a look at all the ways previous sewists has used this fabric and the colourways Minerva keeps in stock. Did I want new pjs made from this fabric?

As a couture sewists at heart, I went for the more calculating option of making a new shirt that I could wear to Stampede…one day in the future. Oh and making sure all the fabric in this shirt lined up

Sewing should be fun to do and the garment has to be great to wear.

When this fabric arrived on my doorstep, I put it straight into the wash and hung it out on a very hot day.

As you can see, the colours in this fabric are as brilliant as they are on Minerva’s website.

After picking lots of dress ideas, I saw that Stampede was almost here. Well then it was crunch time and I grabbed my favourite shirt pattern McCalls 5433, and cut out each fabric piece singly. Cutting the pattern pieces on the fold did my head in but I could match each pattern piece and align the stripes

My decision was to line up the horizontal lines across the front and back bodices. Then I had a crazy thought…line up the button placket as well.

But then I saw how pretty the selvedge was and decided to use it on this shirt.

The selvedge is on the sleeve cuff, on the edge of the top collar and also along the front button placket.

Definitely use Vilene Vlieseline G700 Medium woven for great collars, cuffs and button plackets.

I bought the sparkly yellow buttons from a local sewing shop based on the photo I took of this madras shirting.

That’s my story of my Yee Haw Stampede shirt and punctuated with my crazy weekend hair.