Peter models the funky-cuffed summer shirt!

Readers, the shirt is finished and yesterday, with Michael's able assistance, I got to play fashion model!



I am now thinking the lavender cotton shirt fabric, which I had originally identified as lawn, is in fact voile.  Or gauze.  Or something.  As you can see in the photos, it's slightly transparent, loosely woven, and very soft.  In fact, the softness and loose weave resulted in the one (minor) disappointment in the shirt construction.



Not wanting to deal with flat-felled seams on such soft fabric, I'd planned to stitch the sleeves on, serge the seam allowance, and then stitch the seam allowance down to make a mock flat-felled seam.  However, even with the shirt open and flat (before I'd stitched the sleeve and torso closed), I was unable to stitch down the seam allowance without puckering -- it's that stretchy and soft.  This wasn't a tension issue, though it caused some!

I completed one side, and then ripped it out (gently); traces of which are slightly visible.  Has this ever happened to you?



Anyway, with a shirt this casual and summery, it's fine, and it's not like I'm going to be hurling baseballs in it or anything.  The shoulder seam is perfectly secure.



Here are a few more construction details.  You can view the whole folder of construction pics here.

I interfaced the collar stand with knit weft interfacing on just the outer layer.  For the collar itself I used an additional layer of my fashion fabric (I was short on interfacing).  This is one of my better collar stands.







I topstitched all the way around the stand; sometimes I skip that step.  With the exception of the buttonholes, I sewed the shirt entirely on my Featherweight, using a #9 needle.  Anything larger would occasionally snag the fabric.



I finished the sleeves and side seams with French seams, stitching at 2/8" wrong sides together, trimming down to 1/8 inch, pressing, and then stitching right sides together at roughly 3/8".  I like the result -- clean.



The buttonholes, which I made on my 15-91 with my buttonholer attachment, aren't gorgeous.  I chose not to interface the front left button placket and it could have used a little more heft for prettier buttonholes.   Do you see how the fabric puckers along the width of the placket?  Still, they're stable and not particularly noticeable.   (I really should clip those stray threads...)



And that's it.

Here's a little slide show of me modeling the shirt.  No sailors, I'm afraid.

As always, to see these photos full-size, please click on any image.  In Picasa, click on the title of the folder, and then in the left hand corner, "Slideshow."



Happy Sunday, everybody -- and to all your fathers out there, Happy Father's Day!

Peter in Pajamas!

Friends, there are two kinds of men: ones who wear pajamas and ones who don't.  I certainly don't want to reinforce stereotypes, but some men have pajamas written all over them. 

And some don't.

I never thought I liked pajamas until I made my own.  Now I don't want to get out of them.



For those arriving late to the pajama party, I made these short cotton pajamas out of three different soothing shades of seersucker: gray, lavender, and pale brown.





The pants, which I completed yesterday, have two front fly buttons (the pattern called for just one but I feel safer with two), and a waistband casing with a twill tape tie.


 



I've since replaced the twill tape, which felt flimsy, with wider, sturdier elastic, though the twill tape was a nice vintage touch.

Would my pattern,  Simplicity 9956 from 1990, be considered vintage?  I hope not, but maybe so.  Anyway, pajama patterns haven't changed much over the last century and why should they?

 

You're probably wondering if I slept in my pajamas last night.  Friends, I do think that crosses a line.  You'll just have to decide for yourselves.



And so, the pajama game has ended.

I hope you'll open your heart to pajamas if you haven't already.  They're really quite fun to make and even if they're never slept in, they're great for dress-up and let's not forget community theater.

Have a very Doris day, everybody!

Peter models the McCall's 1954 Men's Sport Shirt!

Friends, thank you so much for your warm and witty comments yesterday in celebration of baby's first birthday here at Male Pattern Boldness.  As you can imagine, after this weekend the house is a mess and I'm emotionally spent.  This has nothing to do with the festivities, mind you, I just completed another men's shirt sewing project!

You may recall my mentioning McCall's 3087 last week almost in passing.  We've all been so focused on our upcoming Men's Shirt Sew-Along (which I am excited to announce already has 100 participants, and latecomers wishing to purchase the Colette Negroni pattern and enjoy our 20% discount have until the end of January to do so -- details here.) you might have thought I'd stopped sewing.

McCall's 3087 is a vintage men's sport shirt from the halcyon Eisenhower years of McCarthy hearings, Cold War, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers -- 1954 to be exact.



As many of you have already pointed out, there's a bit of a mystery to this pullover sport shirt -- how does one actually get into it?  Friends, the secret is contained in this little pattern piece.  Can you figure it out?



Sewing McCall's 3087 was a fascinating process as its construction is different from anything I had sewn before, but the instructions were straight forward.  The only truly dramatic moment was one I alluded to yesterday: my spurting a puddle of Fray Check all over the upper right shirt front as I reinforced a buttonhole.  Believe me when I say the word uttered in my panic was straight from the school yard and it wasn't Ring-a-levio!

This was one of those thank heaven for the Internet moments: I immediately googled How to remove fray check and was led to the Dritz Fray Check information page, containing detailed instructions on its removal, involving a long soak in alcohol.  And it worked, for me and the shirt.

My fashion fabric was a loosely woven, lightweight, pale gray flannel and I decided -- perhaps inspired by the construction of the RTW Western shirt we examined on Saturday -- to simply serge my seam allowances and skip the more painstaking flat-felled seams.

On the armscye I stitched the allowances down (toward the torso of course) to create a flat-felled look from the outside.  Can you tell the difference?





I sewed my first continuous lap on a shirt sleeve -- trickier than a placket, imo -- with decent results. We'll talk more about those during the Sew-Along.



The front is what makes this shirt special.  You secure the neckline with two buttons just below the collar and those buttons must be correctly positioned.  I had to sew mine on six times.





I am pleased with the result, which brings to mind Perry Como at his mellowest and Bing Crosby at his Minute Maid-iest.

The finished shirt.  I really need some new props.







If I were doing this again -- and I know someone is making this for the Sew-Along so listen up -- I would use a gingham or stripe or perhaps a somewhat heavier flannel.  It really is a sport shirt, so the sportier the better!

The fit is roomy as one would expect from a shirt like this, and I made no alterations.  But I could easily have taken 2" out of the chest, which is a size 36.  You could wear it as an overshirt or tunic.



More pics of the shirt construction and results here.

So what do you think -- yea or nay on this 1954 classic?  I'm on the fence.  Too costume-y?  Too...something?  Be honest.

In closing, Sew-Alongers, don't forget to post pics of your fabric and patterns (if different from Negroni) on our Sew-Along Flickr page.

And you all still have till midnight tonight (EST) to enter yesterday's Vogue Patterns giveaway so don't delay.

Happy Monday, everybody!

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!

Peter models the men's plaid flannel shirt

Friends, I fear a Hipster Alert! warning call is imminent and well-warranted.  I finished my flannel shirt yesterday and I cannot deny that I look like what New York Magazine calls the Urban Woodsman.  That scares me though I used to be an avid hiker.

Fortunately I don't live in Brooklyn and yet mysteriously I found myself there yesterday afternoon (though hardly in a hotbed of hipsterism).  Why?  Read on.





I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I finished the plaid flannel shirt yesterday.  I do want to sew more slowly and I try but it's hard.  No matter what I do -- schedule in distractions, miss a night's sleep, sew with dusty old vintage sewing machines -- I find it a challenge to stretch these project out longer.  I will keep trying.

One time-saver was my decision to skip front pockets on the shirt.  They were simply too much plaid and made me seasick.  I hope you agree but I'm standing by my decision.



I also serged the side seams -- a first -- after a very tedious hour spent flat-felling the armscye seams.  Flannel is so spongy and it doesn't really iron to a crisp unless cooked.



I realized a little late but better late than never that I could use beige thread as my top thread and black thread in my bobbin (exact same weight thread from Sil thread) so I wouldn't have unsightly beige stitches on my black cotton sateen trim.  I may redo the front right placket -- you see how the stitches on the placket are beige whereas the collar is (nearly) all black?  I prefer the latter.



The cuff is topstitched beige but the cuff lining is black, which is nice if I turn up my cuffs.





Here's the rear:



Buttonholes , which I did on my Singer buttonholer attached to my Pfaff 30, came out great.



I know reader Renee was rooting for snaps, but I opted for plain old plastic buttons.  Sorry, Renee!



My Pfaff 30 was a good little trouper though still in need of some fine tuning imo.  Her feed dogs automatically drop which made using my buttonholer much more convenient than on my old Singer Spartan.  She's a lovely topstitcher, powerful slow or fast, and I love having my machine in a table and sewing flush with the table top.  

For the record, I made this shirt using Butterick 4712, a slim-fitting vintage Seventies pattern that often shows up on Etsy and eBay.



In other news, friends, the sew-along is GO!

We have a few options.

 1) We can all use the same pattern.  I can recommend a current men's shirt pattern and we can purchase it on our own from a place like Pattern Review or wherever you buy patterns.  That way we're all on the same page.

2) I can recommend a few in-print options and let you decide what works best (since some of you are more interested in women's shirts, or boys shirts, what have you.)  Shirt patterns are more alike than they are different and the sew-along will focus on techniques anyway that will be useful regardless of the pattern.  This way those who may already have a vintage or OOP pattern they want to use can participate.

The number of men's dress shirt patterns currently available is woefully low.  Do you hear that, friends at The McCall Pattern Company (comprising McCall's, Vogue, and Butterick)?

Either way I'll let you know and we'll come up with a way to post pictures to the site, have a forum for questions, etc.  Start date will be early February.  Exciting!

Finally friends, poor Michael.  Tired of watching my swift ascent to blogger whatever-dom from the sidelines, always hoping for a brief mention or photo on Male Pattern Boldness, Michael has decided to start a daily blog of his own.

It's all about food and his cooking adventures and it's called Pleasing My Palate.

Won't you check it out?  We do all have to eat after all.  I am prominently featured, albeit not in my leopard pants, plaid shirt, or toggle coat.  Still you might enjoy it.

Of course if you choose to follow Michael's blog you'll earn extra points in my book, points which will entitle you to the chance of winning potentially valuable prizes at some future time yet to be determined. 

Thankfully Willy and Freddy are not yet up to the daily discipline of blogging though they do have strong opinions about raw meat (love it!), treadmills (ho-hum), and enforced dental hygiene (grrrr.....).

In closing, I have expanded my plaid shirt Picasa file,  so do take a look if you like flannel shirts and expansive views of New York City from a Brooklyn high-rise where I will never live but my brother and SIL, we'll see.  Vertigo alert.

Have a great day everybody!