I have been buying pattern to make dresses for my daughter, so I was thinking to get a pattern for format shirt for my son. He absolutely love formal shirt, even in our hot tropical weather. My favorite Ellie & Mac doesn't have formal shirt for boys, so I search around and saw Westelijk Shirt from The Eli Monster. Everything seems to be well written with beautiful photos taken. 

After I bought it, I start printing the paper, taping the paper, cutting the fabric. And this is when I realize she has used recycled photo for her step by step instruction. Which means the photo doesn't tally with the instruction fully. Being a beginner sewist, I spend some time to trial & error.  I emailed her and even seek for help in the Facebook group. No one reply until 4 days later. She did acknowledge that she used recycle photo and will replace them with the correct ones. So far no updates on the revised copy though. Anyway I tried to continue and stuck at the placket and cuff section. In my prospective (as a complete beginner), the photo doesn't show what the instruction is showing. End up I youtube other sewist on how to do it. If anyone happen to be stuck at the same place as I am, and not able to get any help, you can try to Youtube  The Sewpbox. Total lifesaver, or I can throw the pattern away and waste my money.

At the end, the shirt has too much trial and error then I completely throw it away due to frustration. Hopefully when I gain more experience in sewing, I will be brave enough to use this pattern to sew a formal shirt for my boy. Anyway, I bought another formal shirt pattern - Bayfield from The Lizard King. I have used several of their patterns and they do not use recycle photo, their facebook group always been helpful & friendly and their patterns are so beautiful (especially girls' dresses!). The only thing stopping me to buy more is the price. They are more expensive than Ellie & Mac. I will always wait until promotion period before grabbing their patterns! Currently they are having summer promotion so you can use this code - summer30 to get 30% off their patterns!