Present Joys

Last week, I made a special father’s day shirt for my dad, who is a very serious guitar player! I cut this shirt from a new pattern based on my existing pattern, one of my dad’s existing shirts, and some direct measurements. He wanted a very easy-fitting shirt. The fit isn’t perfect (I should say there are minor “lateral balance problems”), but it’s cool and he was happy with it. Overall a success! And it’s always good to remember why I have a policy of not making clothes for other people—too stressful!

I made one other shirt for myself this week, in a blue-green soft chambray. The fabric is the same as the orange stuff I used a few weeks ago, however, the cut is much better and truer. I gave this shirt a more “normal” collar shape, that is, not spearpoint-shaped. I pleated the sleeves into the cuffs. The most exciting thing about this shirt is the color; it’s this wild blue-green. The warp is a cool, purple-blue and the weft is a warm green-blue; combined, they make a very intriguing robin’s-egg color. How will I ever be able to accessorize this?!

I ran out of pearl shirt buttons after I finished my dad’s guitar shirt. I’m planning a trip to Cincinnati in a few weeks, where I’ll be able to get some more deadstock pearl shirt buttons at Banasch’s. Until then, anything I make will have to do without buttons until then!

It’s been two weeks since my last shirtmaking post, mostly because I had some trouble with my patterns which took time to resolve. More on that later. The first shirt here is a seersucker “fun shirt”—something I’ve wanted to make for a while now. I used leftover grey seersucker from the shirt I made a few weeks ago, along with 1.5 yards each of red and green seersucker from Jo-Ann’s. I had no idea how much fabric to buy since I knew I’d be using three different colors instead of just one piece—turns out, I probably could have gone with just 1 yard each. The shirt is a popover, i.e, it’s got a front placket like a polo shirt that’s about 11″ long.

Fit-wise, trying to make a popover was tough enough—I shouldn’t have complicated it by using seersucker, which is notoriously stretchy and difficult to measure. The shirt turned out alright, but the center front. Cutting a popover really showed me that my pattern wasn’t as good as it could be, especially around the neckline. After this realization, I spent almost a whole week just working on a new pattern. I went back to my favorite shirt draft and drew everything out from scratch. You can’t really tell, but I dramatically altered both the neckline shape and the armscye. On my old pattern, the armscye was 21″ around—on my new pattern, it’s only 18″. It takes a little longer to put on my new shirt pattern, but the higher armhole means it fits better and gives me more flexibility. I cut three new shirts from my new, improved pattern.

There’s a short-sleeved shirt in red, white, pink, and cool grey fabric from Sew to Speak. I thought the colors looked very nice for summertime, which is ironic because the fabric itself has scarves on it. Nothing too special; just a better fit!

I also made a long-sleeved shirt out of Kaffe Fassett “shot cotton” from Sew to Speak. The fabric is wild and glorious—it’s as light as a feather, yet perfectly opaque, and it’s brilliantly-colored. I used bright yellow cotton thread to do all the stitching, instead of the typical white, and I think it gives the shirt a little character. The sleeves are gathered into the cuffs, a technique I still really enjoy.

Finally, I made a casual shirt out of grey fabric with foxes on it, again from Sew to Speak. It’s got a straight hem instead of shirt tails, designed to be worn untucked! It’s some of the coolest fabric I’ve ever seen.

It’s been so warm lately that my hair keeps falling in my face, making me sweat and making it very difficult to work. So I made a little cap to keep my hair on top of my head while I’m working.

It looks a little silly, but it does the job. And it’s breathable: made from left-over tobacco linen and lined with lightweight cotton voile. Sewn by hand, without any machine stitches. Perfect for summer days spent working over a hot iron.

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!