L---P----1----+----2----+----3----+----4----T----R Shirts Shirt Collars: Shirt collars should be in two pieces. One-piece collars are tricky to install, can't fit properly, and don't wear well. There will be a band or "stand," and the collar proper will be sewn between the stand and its lining before the stand is sewn to the shirt. Most shirt patterns have stands that curve a little, and collars that curve a little. I have a pattern for an "amish" shirt in which the stand curves a lot, like a mandarin collar, and the collar is a perfectly straight strip. On the one hand the collar can be torn or cut along a thread; on the other, the band wastes more fabric than the modern version. Since the old stand lies closer to the neck, accuracy in fitting is more important. I think I like the older collar better. When you cut a shirt, even a curved collar stand can usually be fitted in among the larger pieces with no problem. If you are making many shirts for the same person, a little fuss in fitting is no extra trouble. If you make the first few shirts in summer fabrics and don't put a button at the neck, you don't have to get the collar just so the first time. The points of the collars on elegant shirts are sharp, sharp, sharp. This shows that you can afford a shirtmaker skilled enough to make a sharp point without lumps. It also shows that you aren't expecting the shirt to withstand hard wear or vigorous washing. A point on a work shirt collar should be blunted slightly by taking a short stitch across the point instead of pivoting at the point, or rounded by taking two or three stitches. Make up your mind, and sew both sides the same way. If the curve is more than three stitches, draw the stitching line right on the fabric, using a thimble, a spool, one of the larger holes in a knitting-needle gauge, a pocket template, or whatever comes to hand to make the curves smooth and identical. If there is any drafting equipment in the house, look it over. (If it isn't *your* drafting equipment, think about how you would feel if someone were to cut up a chicken with your bent-handle trimmers, and conduct yourself respectfully.) Sometimes a collar and its lining (the lining is sometimes called the "undercollar") have separate patterns, so that the lining can be slightly smaller and pull the seam to the underside. This is not necessary. If the collar and its lining are cut by the same pattern, pin the pieces together so that the ends of the lining stick out up to an eighth of an inch beyond the ends of the collar. The excess upper collar will ease out when you pin the top of the collar. If necessary, pin the collar to an ironing board under tension, after pinning the ends and matching the notches (Corsage pins are handy for "nailing" work in progress.) Put pins halfway between pins until the excess is cut into pieces too short to detect -- seven pins would divide a quarter inch of excess into pieces one thirty- second of an inch long. It is not necessary to offset the top part of the seam. When pressing the seam, first press it toward the undercollar, then when you flatten the collar, press it with the raw edge of the undercollar sticking out beyond the raw edge of the upper collar. You not only have rolled the seam of the collar to the underside, you've graded the seam between the collar and the stand. Collar Interlining: If you throw out a white muslin sheet, save a generous strip of the good parts, and you'll have a lifetime supply of pre-shrunk 100%-cotton interlining for collars and stands. (The stuff they are now passing off as "percale" is woven too tight for this purpose.) If the fabric of the shirt is suitable for interlining, use it; it's guaranteed compatible. The stuff sold as interlining often lacks body or is stiff, and it's generally transparent. When transparent interlining will do, you can use the shirt fabric -- except in wool shirts, which don't need interlining at all, and are better if you use a thinner fabric for the undercollar and the inside of the collar band. Digression: Facings and Interfacings on Wool Shirts Do not use cotton or part-cotton fabric for anything in a wool shirt, as cotton is very cold when it is the least bit damp. Linen is at least as bad. Use an animal fiber or a pure synthetic for facings and interfacings on a wool shirt. Make sure the lining-and-facing fabric is durable, especially if it's a synthetic satin. We are apt to jump to the conclusion that synthetics are strong, but there are synthetics and synthetics, and cloth mills seldom think of satins as fabrics for hard wear. Also make sure that facing fabrics don't feel nasty when wet, as men sweat no matter how cold it is. End digression Cut the interlining by the same pattern as the top of the collar, then cut off the corners so that a small space in each point of the collar isn't interlined. Though we call it interlining, it's easiest and most effective when sewn as an underlining: that is, baste it to the collar top and afterward treat the two pieces as one. You baste it to the collar top, not to the undercollar, so that it can help to hide the seam allowances. Making the top thicker also helps with rolling the seam to the underside. (Unless it is so thick that the lining wraps around it, but that happens only in hat brims.) If a collar band is quite narrow, it will be adequately interfaced by its seam allowances, and further stiffening is not required. A transparent, stretchy, or flimsy fabric may require underlining anyway. _ Shirt Openings Some shirts open all the way down the front, and some have a placket at the neck. If you aren't meeting some special need, choose the "coat-type" shirt; the pattern is less complicated to sew and, more important, a shirt that you can't open out flat is a *bummer* to iron. In any case, have ar least one coat-type shirt on hand in case of sprained shoulders, severe mouse-user's syndrome, and the like. When making a pullover shirt, a placket that runs the full length of a front yoke is easier to sew than a placket inserted into a slash. The yoke will need to be rather deep to allow enough opening to pull the shirt on easily. The yoke can be any shape you please, unless you need to hide shaping in the yoke seam. If you have no preference, run the yoke seam straight across through the middle of the pockets on a man's shirt, or straight across two inches above the darts on a woman's shirt. Then close up the bust darts, which will open ease, gathers, or pleats at the yoke seam. (It would be even easier to run the seam right through the darts, but a seam across the fullest part of the bust is extremely unflattering.) If you want to close the shirt with snaps or hooks, make it the same as for buttons, except that you sew on snaps or hooks instead of working buttonholes and sewing on buttons. To close the shirt with a zipper, cut with the center- front line as a seam, insert the zipper in the seam, then cover the tapes with facings. You can leave the collar stand at the original length, to make tabs to button or snap together, but the one-piece collar is more appropriate to this style of shirt. Since there is no overlap, the one- piece collar can be installed exactly as you would install a stand. It remains harder to iron than a two-piece collar, but if the shirt is permanent-press, this won't be a problem. _ Back Yoke The back of a man's shirt often features a yoke that includes a few inches of the back and an inch or half an inch of the front. Even when a shirt has no yoke, the shoulder seam is sometimes displaced to the front. This must be taken into consideration if you use the shoulder seam as a guide for installing the sleeve -- the center of the sleeve cap may be somewhat behind the shoulder seam. The basic back pattern includes darts at the shoulder, because typical backs are wider than typical shoulders. A loose-fitting shirt may omit this shaping, by letting the armseye seam drop a bit, or by making the armhole larger. In a closer-fitting shirt, the darts will be hidden in the yoke seam, or a box pleat at center back may provide the needed ease across the back. I don't recall ever seeing a man's shirt which had obvious shoulder darts. I will assume the presence of a back yoke when describing the assembly of a shirt. _ Pockets A man's shirt has two patch pockets over his nipples. This position is not acceptable for most women, so put a woman's pockets on the shoulders of the shirt, with their tops about an inch below the lowest point of the neckline, or near the hem of an overshirt. _ Sleeves An active-wear shirt has a flat sleeve cap, and looks really good only when you hold your arms out to the sides. The high cap of the basic dress sloper looks good when your arms and at your sides, but wrinkles when you raise your arms, and it's more inclined to lift your hem than the flatter cap. Since it doesn't demand as much easing, the shirt-type sleeve is easier to install than the dress-type sleeve. _ Order of assembly && ------------------------------------------------------------------- _ EVENING SHIRT A nightshirt is a longer, fuller day shirt. Making a nightshirt is a particularly good beginner's exercise, if you make it from the same pattern that you will use later to make a ..Nightshirt pattern adapted from a usenet post: rec.crafts.textiles.sewing in thread Re: Beginner and male on 13 May 1997 dress shirt or a sport shirt. Just make the tails longer, add some ease, and make it of flannel or muslin instead of shirting. All-cotton seersucker makes a good summer nightshirt, particularly if the fabric was woven in India, but it doesn't show up your mistakes as clearly as a flat fabric, so it isn't as good for a learning exercise as muslin, gingham, or madras. The back is easy to alter: measure yourself or your proposed victim from the bottom of the shirt yoke to the place where you want the shirt to stop, add seam allowance and a generous-to-allow-for- mistakes hem, and tear off a piece of fabric that long. (Or cut it thread-straight by using a woven-in stripe or a drawn thread as a guide.) Fold the cloth in half and place the back pattern on it, with the grain line parallel to the fold, the side-seam cutting line just touching the selvage, and the top cutting line touching the torn or cut edge. Cut off the corner of the fabric to make an armhole. Measure the distance from the bottom of the pattern to the bottom of the fabric so you can add the same amount to the front. Pleat this piece to fit the yoke of the shirt, and assemble the same way you'll later assemble your dress shirt. Adding ease to the front takes some modification. Draw a seam line two or three inches below the armhole, through the middle of the pockets. (You may make the yoke deeper or shallower according to taste, as long as there is plenty of room to poke your head through.) This new seam can be curved or slanted to make an ornamental yoke, but simplify your first attempt by drawing it on the cross grain -- a ruler-straight line at right angles to the grain line on your pattern. Draw cutting lines the width of your seam allowance above and below the seam line. You could use these lines as a guide to make two pattern pieces to sew together and re- create the original shape. Only the upper piece will be used for the nightshirt. I let the original pattern hang off a cut or torn edge, using the lower cutting line as a guide. A beginner would be well advised to trace the upper part of the pattern onto another piece of paper. On the original pattern, measure from the upper cutting line to the bottom of the pattern. Add to this as much as you added to the back. Tear off a piece that long, pleat it to fit the upper front. Baste in the upper part of these pleats to make a comfortable flat space for sewing on the pockets. If you want the fullness to be lower without making the yoke wider, you may top-stitch the pleats, perhaps as far as the waist. Pull the ends of the threads to the inside, but do not secure them -- if the stitching pulls out, it was too low for comfort, and would have torn the fabric if the threads had been secured. Pull the threads back in at their new level, and if it's now correct, they will stay. After a washing or two, you may tie them together and cut them short, or thread the ends into a needle and hide them inside the stitched fold. You might want to cut the pockets larger than those on a day shirt; it's a matter of taste and handkerchief size. Also design a much larger pair of patch pockets to fill in for the pockets in the pants that are not worn with a nightshirt. Make them the height and width of the side pockets in pants, or a little more. Don't forget to allow for turn-under and hems. When the shirt is otherwise complete, pin them in place over the side seams, with a little more on the front than on the back, and try on the shirt to make sure the hands rest in them comfortably, then top-stitch them in place. (You can make side-seam pockets -- see "pockets"-- but patch pockets are easier and more masculine.) Cut and assemble much as you would a day shirt. If the pattern for the front calls for a sewn-on facing, make a very wide seam allowance to turn under instead. If the fabric is thin, make it even wider, to turn under again for interfacing. If the fabric is thick, you can cut with the seam line on the fold, and make the whole yoke double. A double yoke is also good for a printed fabric, if you want to be able to open the placket and lay it back without exposing the wrong side of the fabric. For a time, pretend the upper front is all the front there is. Assemble the back to the front, attach the collar, set in the sleeves. Leave out any buttons you don't plan to button -- perhaps all of them; a man has nothing to hide in this area, and the shirt stays in place nicely without buttons. As with a day shirt, do as much as possible of the buttonhole- making, zipper-setting and whatnot before sewing the back to the front. When the shirt is ready for the side seams, close the zipper, button the buttons, or pin the yoke together. If the seam allowance is half an inch, draw a line half an inch from the cut edge of the top front, on the right side. (There are wash-out pens made just for this purpose, but the mark will be fully enclosed, so anything that doesn't bleed will do. A #2 pencil is clear, but permanent.) If the seam allowance is five eighths. draw the line three-fourths of an inch from the edge. If the allowance is metric, you're on your own. (Double the allowed seam allowance, then subtract twice what you mean to use for the narrower seam allowance.) ** optional step to be explained later. Right sides together, pin the bottom front to the top front with the edge of the bottom front on the line. Sew one quarter inch from the edge of the bottom front. (You probably have a presser foot with a toe that conveniently marks a quarter inch for you. You may have to fiddle with the needle position.) If you have a bunch of piled-up thick stuff in the seam, trim some of it out. Try not to let any two cut edges coincide. (This is called "grading".) If you thought ahead when you put in interfacing, and trimmed it to not quite reach the seam line, this step will be easier. (But make sure a separate interfacing is secured in some other manner -- perhaps by being top-stitched to the facing.) Press the seam allowances to point down, then press a fold in the wider allowance so that the raw edges meet. On the right side, top stitch a sixteenth of an inch from the seam. ** The step in the above paragraph will be easier if, at the previous **, you press or baste the raw edge to meet the marked line, so that the raw edges already meet when you get to this point. Baste the first time you try it, as the fold has an annoying tendency to come unpressed. Turn to the wrong side, and stitch near the edge of the folded seam allowance. If you want the two rows of stitching to be particularly even, baste near the fold on the wrong side, then top-stitch on the right side. Guide on the previous top stitching, at the widest separation that doesn't catch any of the basting stitches. This is one method for making a "flat-felled seam." It is also called "felled seam", since standing-fell seams are quite rare. (See my discussion of my linen cycling jersey for a different way to make this same exact seam.) Now all that's left to do is the side seams, hems, and pockets. Sew on the shirt pockets before sewing up the side seams, as it will be easier to get at them. You may remove the basting in the front pleats as soon as the pockets are secure. Sew the side pockets on after everything else is done, for convenience in trying the shirt on to make sure they are in the right place. On the second shirt, you can measure the first one to place the pockets, but you still have to sew them on after the side seams are finished, unless you want them entirely in front, like smock pockets. In this case, you can catch one side of each pocket in the side seam instead of top-stitching it. Another method, suitable for a lady's shirt, is to cut a shallow notch a bit wider than a hand on the side seam of the front, hem this notch, appliqu‚ a teardrop-shaped patch to the wrong side of the front, with the raw edge of the pocket matching the raw edge of the front, so that the pocket will be closed by the side seam, but the hemmed notch will provide access. Underpatch pockets are discussed in more detail in the section on pockets. ----------------------------------- &&&