Present Joys

The last of the gingham! This time a red 1/8-inch weave, also from Banasch’s Fabrics. It’s the same as the pink stuff from two weeks ago. As I said, I prefer the larger ¼-inch gingham, but this stuff is pretty nice too. I used a scrap of yellow stuff from a previous shirt for the inner collar stand, which I think contrasts nicely with the red.

I initially made up the shirt fronts like a woman’s blouse, that is, right-over-left instead of left-over-right. By some fluke, I didn’t notice this obvious mistake until I’d already made up the collar stand and trimmed seam allowances! yikes! I ended up taking off the collar stand, correcting the fronts, and very gingerly sewing a new stand back onto the neckline. And it worked perfectly. No harm done, except for a few yards of wasted mercerized cotton thread.

This shirt is nearly identical to last week’s, even the collar, which is a tall, very moderate spread. This is a solid pattern that I think I’ll stick with for the remainder of the summer.

I’m tired of gingham! Next week I’m doing something really different. Stay tuned.

This week’s shirt is made from a ¼-inch blue gingham from Banasch’s fabrics. I originally thought the larger-size gingham would be more difficult to work with, but in the end I think I prefer it to the smaller stuff.

I don’t have much to say about this project, except that’s it’s as close to an ideal shirt as I’ve ever got. I cut down my pattern substantially (removing about 1” total from the armscye, and ½” from each side), but all changes were well-planned and thus work well. The fit of this slightly slimmer pattern is surprisingly good: I think I’ve really got something great here!

Construction of this shirt went off very smoothly, and I had a great time working with the fabric. Feeling very good. Next week: more gingham. Stay tuned, friends.

This week’s shirt is made from 1/8-inch pink gingham from Banasch’s Fabrics in Cincinnati, which I got on sale for 50% off! The material is perfect for shirting, as you’d imagine. I used the same pattern I’ve used for the past few shirts.

Well, I did make one change to my pattern, actually: I took about an inch of fullness out of the sleeve at the cuff edge, effectively turning two large cuff pleats into one medium-sized pleat. I was a little afraid to slim down the sleeve like this, but in hindsight I’m so glad I did it. Having to pleat so much sleeve material at the cuff seam was an unnecessary bit of work that I do not miss.

I’ve cut the past three or four shirts the same way, and though they all turned out pretty nicely, I think it’s time to make some more alterations to my master pattern. I’m going to take a good inch off the side seams and try to make the front neckline fit a little more comfortably. As always, I’ll report on my efforts.

I haven’t done buttonholes or hemmed the bottom yet, but this is only because I’m lazy and it’s been an unusually busy week. Once I finish this shirt, I’ll be wearing it a lot this summer.