Present Joys

likeslowlikefilm asked:

about how long did it take you to make your first shirt? I have a beginners knowledge of sewing and have done a few other projects. Also where did you get your shirt pattern? Did you base it off your measurements or just take a standard one and alter it? Also may I just say I love your blog, I only just started following but may I saw although my blog may not reflect the particular aesthetic I very much appreciate your understanding of traditional menswear!

Thanks so much for your kind comments!

I didn’t keep track of time when I started. At first, shirtmaking seemed like an insurmountable task: I’d work for a while then put it away for a few weeks. So it took a long time to finish a shirt, and they weren’t very good. By last summer, I could finish a shirt in a week’s time. As I’ve gotten even better since then, I’m able to work much faster than that—mostly because I make less dumb mistakes.

I started out by taking apart an old shirt and tracing the pattern. After I became familiar with the technical skills required for shirtmaking, I drew my own pattern from a draft in the book A Guide to Casual Clothes by Roberts and Onishenko. I wouldn’t recommend starting with a custom pattern until you are confident with the sewing techniques… getting a good fit is a lot of added stress!

Anyone looking to start should definitely read Shirtmaking by David Page Coffin. It is an excellent, easy-to-understand book.

I’ve been out of school for just over a week now—and I’m proud to say I’ve been busy with my time this past week. Some background information: last year at this time, I’d only made about five shirts and my production skills were severely lacking. So all last summer, I made one shirt every week (and I wrote about it online), in an effort to improve both my technical skill and the accuracy of my patterns. I think I did both! This past saturday was my first time making a shirt since last august. Surprisingly, I was able to work much faster than I had last summer. And construction is easier! Practice makes perfect. I made three shirts this week:

The first shirt is a tangerine chambray. (I made a very similar shirt exactly a year ago… I love this sort of fabric.) I used my pattern from june 2011, which is slightly loose-fitting. I wanted to make a 1940s-style shirt: blousy, with a spearpoint collar and loose-fitting sleeves. I think I overdid the spearpoint thing—the collar points are 4.5″ long! This is the kind of collar that will look great with a tie and a collar pin, but it’s just too big by itself. In another attempt to give this shirt a golden-era feel, I gathered the sleeves into the cuffs instead of using pleats as is usually done. The gathers mean the sleeve’s fullness is evenly-distributed around the cuff, instead of being all lumped near the sleeve placket. It’s a subtle effect but it’s pretty neat-looking. I will probably continue to use this technique.

The second shirt is an awesome feather print from Sew to Speak. The fabric isn’t really designed for garment use, so it feels a little stiff. I’m hoping it will soften up after launderings. I loved this fabric as soon as I saw it, and I’d been hoping to make a shirt out of it for months now. This is the first short-sleeved shirt I’ve ever made; I figured the wild fabric would work better in short-sleeved form. In the end, I think making this short-sleeved just makes it look like a Hawaiian shirt (which was not my intention). I’ve just got to be very careful to keep it tucked in. Regardless, I’m happy with it. I still love the print. And the sleeves are hemmed with 3″ of extra fabric so I can roll up the sleeves without the wrong side showing. It’s fun.

The third shirt was cut from my july 2011 pattern, which is slimmer. The fabric is a wild, lightweight cotton twill I bought at Jo-Ann Fabrics last fall. It looks really cool close-up, but unfortunately, from far away, it looks a lot like puke. I’d originally planned to make this shirt with french cuffs and a detachable collar band. But then I realized that I really don’t like wearing french cuffs, so I didn’t make them. In hindsight, I’m glad, because big, showy cuffs would have only made this shirt even sketchier. It fits correctly, at least!

I’m not going to set a weekly goal for myself like I did last summer. I’m quite happy with my skills and I’m looking forward to trying some new techniques. For the near future, I’m going to take a break from shirts altogether and work on my coatmaking skills. Stay tuned, tumblr!

Sartorial truth.

The semester is finished, so it’s time for Nigel and his teachers, spring 2012 edition! (some teachers not pictured).

• Had a little end-of-semester portfolio review/meeting with Boryana. Conclusion: I am good at value and bad with line. And Boryana is spectacular.
• Ate lunch in the cafeteria for the last time! I had one of those gross cheese quesadillas just for nostalgia’s sake.
• Turned in my final interactive pdf for Worst class of the week. And then I was done with the worst class of the week forever.
• Didn’t have any American lit class all week. Instead, I just spent time working on my final project.
• Turned in my 19th century art history final (two essays) and spent the rest of my tuesday lunch break studying History of fashion notes with Amanda.
• Had a glorious team class pizza party with M-Tabs. She brought Granville-made pizza, soda, and circus peanuts. We watched the movie Jumanji. We gave her a framed photo and she loved it. It was altogether one of the best things ever.
• Went to History of fashion class and took a final exam. Our teacher brought us scones from Panera.
• Went into my Illustration class at 12:30pm and picked up my work and said my goodbyes.
• Had a very late wednesday lunch with Amanda, Jason, and Michelle at the Brown Bag Deli. I had a delicious sandwich with braunschweiger.
• Went out to lunch on thursday with my 19th century art history teacher and her husband and some other class friends. We went to El Arepazol on Pearl Alley and had a lovely time. Dana drove all of us and I rode in the cargo area in the back of her Acura.
• Showed up for Mr. Burleigh’s class, which actually consisted of milling around on the third floor of Crane to look at the walls and say goodbye to everyone. Mr. Burleigh was wearing a tool belt.
• Walked with Colleen several blocks to the bank so she could pay me for our board game. It was a very nice sort of postmortem. And then we were done.