Monday 17 January 2011

Peter models the Dubarry 1939 men's shirt!



Friends, someone said I looked like an Amish farmer in this 1939 Dubarry men's shirt; I was shooting more for Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath but I'd settle for Christian Bale in Newsies.  (Mickey Rooney in Young Thomas Edison?)

As you can see, the top button closes with a little stud (there's a joke in there somewhere).



Here's the collared version:



And from the rear:



I bought those pants years ago at Banana Republic and the rise was always too high but they work for this shirt, especially with suspenders.  But I digress.



As I mentioned yesterday, I love the cut of this old shirt.  If I make it again I think I'll skip the detachable collar though.  It was an interesting challenge and I learned a lot about shirt collars in the process.

And speaking of shirt collars, who paid me a visit yesterday here at MPB but the Elvis of men's shirtmaking, Mr. David Page Coffin himself -- or someone doing an extremely credible imitation.  Of course I was flattered but quickly went back to my most recent posts and scrubbed them of all profanity.  If it hadn't been a virtual visit I'd have invited him for coffee.

More pics of my shirt and shirtmaking process here.

In other shirt-related news, I couldn't resist picking this up yesterday.  This Advance shirt pattern dates from 1942; I don't think the collar is detachable.  (Does anyone smoke a pipe anymore?)



The price of these old shirt patterns varies widely depending on the seller.  I bought my Dubarry pattern for $5, there's another on Etsy for $10, and I've seen it selling for $45.  Whatever you do, don't pay big bucks for those old pajama patterns -- they are everywhere and what do you want with a pair of Depression-era PJ's in the first place?  (Same goes for smoking jackets.)

We have a lot in store this week as we continue to prepare for our Men's Shirt Sew-Along -- now a mere two weeks away.  I hope those of you making the Colette Negroni shirt have ordered your patterns, and I can see from our Flickr group that we have all kinds of shirts in the pipeline and some cool vintage patterns I covet.  It's still not too late to buy some fabric and join the party.

Tomorrow we're going to be closely inspecting a Thomas Pink shirt -- very fancy but is the construction different than a shirt from the Gap?  Tune in to find out!  Later in the week we'll be celebrating the arrival of my Elnapress...and then this weekend we have an even bigger celebration in the works -- can you guess what for?

Friends, we're out of time and there are cows that need milking. 

I hope you're starting the day with a smile and a song.  Or at least a smirk and a hum.

Happy Monday, everybody!

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