Selfless Sewing: A Men's Shirt

A while ago I made this shirt for Lescha. It was my second attempt. The first one was a slight disaster which escalated when I stitched and opened the buttonholes on the wrong side of the button band. As I don't want to relive this nightmare, I'm not going to show you version 1 (which is wearable - and Lescha does - after I closed the buttonholes and stitched them on the right side).

May I proudly present Lescha's purple shirt:

 

Fabric: Black/purple oxford shirting bought in Goldhawk Road. It frayed a bit, but was otherwise a breeze to sew. I interfaced the collar, collar stand and cuffs with fusible canvas which I bought from English Couture. The plackets are interfaced with fine cotton. I got these two interfacing plus Bondaweb (which I didn't use) in a Shirt Interfacing Starter Pack. 

I had the hardest time ever to fuse the canvas to the fabric. Although I used loads of steam and pressed with my whole weight on the iron there are patches on the collar and cuffs where the interfacing came off after washing the shirt. It's so annoying. So if you have any tips, please share.

Pattern: It's Burda style pattern 7045 which comes in three versions - aka three different collar types. Lescha wanted version A which has the classic collar.

Alterations: I made four muslins (if counting shirt No1) before I got the fit right. Leschas main problem with RTW shirts is that he always has a massive fabric fold at the back joke right under the neck. I quickly figured out that this was due to his square shoulders. So I made a square shoulder adjustment on the yoke following the instructions of "Fit for real people". It essentially involves the addition of a triangle of fabric to the yoke at the shoulder points.

To make the shirt more tailored I took it in a lot at the side seams. Here I just took a tailored shirt he owns and likes as a guideline to have an idea how fitted the shirt should be. As shirt No1 was to tight over the chest and in the back I added 1/4'' on the back, front and yoke pattern (that was after I attempted a FBA on a MEN's shirt, haha, didn't work well). I know that on the photos it still looks like the shirt is too tight but Lescha said it isn't. I think the shine caught by the camera makes it look worse on the photos than it actually is.

I raised the sleeve cap as well a couple of centimeters. Because I had done the square shoulder adjustment, I didn't had to worry about the added circumference of the cap. I just kept measuring and changing the sleeve cap until it fit into the armhole. (The massive crease you are seeing here is not my doing. Lescha always irons it in.)

You can see that he has plenty of space at the back now. Thus his forward arm movements are not restrained.

I also changed the sleeves. I made them a bit tighter at the wrist and 1" wider at the underarm. I couldn't find instructions how to widen the underarm only (and not the wrist and biceps area). Thus I cut off the wrist and biceps on the pattern leaving me with the underarm. I spread the underarm by 0.5" left and right to the center and then attached the now to small wrist and biceps pattern. I then tapered the seam lines so that they fit. Leaving me with a sleeve pattern that had a bulge in the underarm area :)

Construction: I didn't follow the instructions - except for the placket. Lescha had lovingly gifted me with the Craftsy class "The classic tailored shirt" a year and a half ago. So I followed the instructions of the instructor which are great and very detailed. Thanks To the class I didn't have to handstitch the yoke but could use my sewing machine. I handstitched however the under-collar and the cuffs to the shirt. Which was not too bad and didn't take long.

The only time I used the instructions were for attaching the placket because this type of placket is not covered in the Craftsy class. My second attempt turned out much better.

So how about you? Have you attempted the "art" of shirt making? I will be making another one soonish - Christmas present :)

What a lucky guy: Knitted men's vest

This will be a knitting post. So if you are not really interested,  just scroll down to the New Year Resolutions and there will be some more general thoughts about sewing ;)

Yep, I am still knitting! And this time not for me, but for Lescha. I am not sure how he convinced me to knit a vest for him, but I guess I felt bad that I still haven't sewn him his shirt. But it is so much more fun to make stuff for myself! He was not jumping happily around when I gave him the vest (maybe because he had to go outside in the garden, so that I could take pictures, hehe). So let's talk about the vest! I am not going to bore you with the detailed knitting, but if you are interested have a look on my Ravelry notes.

Thread: It had to be cotton, as Lescha doesn't like wool. So I used Rowan Handknit cotton in chocolate.

Pattern: None :P Lescha wanted to have a vest similar to one he saw at Ted Bakers. So, I had a look a Ravelry, but couldn't find one that I really liked. Thus I made up my own pattern.

Ted Baker vest, image source

Leschas vest

Construction: I measured Lescha (hips, waist, chest, shoulders...) and then calculated the number of stitches I needed corresponding to my gauze swatch. I knitted the vest bottom up and knitted fronts and back together, so that the vest does not have any side seams. Then I split fronts and back at the armholes and grafted them together at the shoulder seams. Finally I added a button band and buttons. But I have to admit, I got some ideas about the armhole and shoulder shaping from looking at other knitting patterns.

Next time: sway back adjustment

How long did it take? It took me only 3 weeks to knit the vest, including blocking, because I had loads of time over Christmas and even more on the airplane and train. I am not bothered anymore by people looking at me :P

See how that pulls? Makes me cringe. 

Does he like it? Yes he does! Not in the jumpy, happy, screamy way (my way, hihi), but he is wearing it.

Am I happy with it? I think it is a bit tight (he wanted it to have some negative ease and he also gained some weight over Christmas, buh) and tries to pull apart at the center front. It is an annoying sight, but hopefully with some time, everything will get a bit loose and fit better.

Side increases.

I know the vest does look different then the one from Ted Baker. I could have probably added the pockets and used different colored yarn, but honestly I just wanted to finish it so that I could start knitting a sweater for myself :) (Good that he is NOT reading my blog.)


New Year resolutions?
One thing that I noticed is that I am knitting more than sewing at the moment and that is not only because I like to snuggle on the couch. I think that is because I have so many sewing projects in my queue and so much fabric in my stash that I don't know where to start. But for the knitting, I am only having one project at the time at home and thus I don't have to decide with which one I should start next.

So, one of my New Year resolutions is to use up some more fabric from my stash and then try to keep it small, before buying new ones. Also, I will try not to buy any new patterns, before I have made the ones in my pattern box, ha! Have you seen Gails post (from today's agenda)? She and many other bloggers are currently on a stash diet and have set themselves some rules about using mostly stash fabrics and not (rarely) buying new fabrics. I really like that idea and will participate in the stash diet. What about you? Do you feel like you stash is crushing you?