Birthday sewing shirt Vogue 8096 etc

Apparently, I bought my husband a plasma cutter for his birthday.
Although I have been assured that  this is a highly desirable birthday present, it was a somewhat unsatisfying gift giving process. This may have had something to do with supplying only the $. (I had to Google plasma cutting, looks nasty to me,  other peoples' hobbies can be incomprehensible...)
This has displayed to me that in my case, sewing a gift has selfish elements, mostly to do with giving myself warm fuzzies.
Being rather partial to thinking well of myself, I sewed my husband a proper birthday gift, being something handmade and one-of-a-kind.

See the nice shirt? It is my usual Vogue 8096 pattern, made according to David Page Coffin's Shirtmaking book, flatfelled to within and inch of its life, and with topstitching via my handcranked Singer circa 1933, which has a perfect straight stitch. I am so lucky.


It has lovely parallel stripes at the front yoke seam....

....leading to a satisfying stripe intersection at the back yoke.



I fiddled about to make fancy back pleats, which is a nice change for me.

I lined up the plackets so the stripes matched, a bit like jigsaw puzzles.I can almost see why patchwork is appealing.

Look! a contrast inner collar stand and amusing initial labelling ;)

He bought this fabric himself, at Global Fabrics in Wellington, New Zealand, whilst he was hanging about pretending he didn't mind me admiring every single thing in the shop- 2011. He is a very enabling sewing supporter.

Did you notice there is no man inside this shirt?
I have given up on photography torture of my husband.
Is it a bad thing that this makes me less inclined to sew for him? Blogging definitely influences my sewing.
 

Here is another thing I sewed for him, on special order, which is much more virtuous sewing. Just imagine that this on a man's head instead of charmingly applied to a paint tin. I know you all have excellent imaginations.

 I am patting myself on the back for this one. This strange object is a merino jersey under-cycling-helmet  head warmer and sun protector. He asked that I make it for cold morning rides  - to replace his anti-sunburn caps worn during summer cycling.I made it about 2 months ago, actually I made 2 of them, and he has been promising to model it ever since. Hmmmm.

We might as well get lots of dull sewing done in one post.
New ironing board cover

Elastic drawstring cord and old towel for padding, untrimmed because I had not got the overlocker set up.

It is prettier than the last one, but I'm glad I have some fun sewing coming up.



Stashbusting statistics
Various merino jersey scraps
2m of cotton quilting fabric about 2009
3m of cotton shirting 2011

The virtuous shirt, Vogue 8096

My husband is a big fan of my sewing. This may sound like a good thing, and of course, it is, but there is a side effect, which involves actually sewing garments for him, instead of myself. I am sure you can see the drawbacks. In addition, he is no longer satisfied with a quick t shirt. This is entirely my fault.
Here is the only garment I have been working on for the past 2 weeks. My mojo was lethargic.



I like this shirt,but there is little new to write about. I used Vogue 8096, previously adjusted,with some design variations.



1. Chevrons at collar and back yoke due to bias cutting, with a little machine embroidery to hold down the inverted back pleat.

2. David Page Coffin tower plackets with Pamela Erny wrapped contrast cuffs.

3. Contrast collar stand and inner plackets, with under placket extended by 1cm past the cross over as an embellishment.

Fabrics are cotton shirtings from Michael's fabric (red and white stripe) and GoldHawk Rd (grey with black, white and red stripe), topstitching was with a hand cranked Singer 28. I used self fabric interfacing as I have run out of shirting interfacing. ( I bought some more from Pamela Erny's Fashion Sewing Supply site no affiliation etc,- it is on sale today, lucky me) The buttons are a very pale grey, in stripes, which look much nicer than regular white shirting buttons - truly.


The photo shoot was a little limited.Here is the shirt on location, at work, with a flash, work being inside. One photo allowed, headless. Hmmm. I did make modelling a condition of receiving the shirt, but I don't think it was worth bothering about.

It is difficult to tell from the photo that he is very pleased with the garment.
I am very pleased to be cutting out a loud sundress next.

Deadline December Vogue 8096 Bicycle shirt version 2

After I foolishly gave my husband his Christmas present early. Mary Nanna commented that she hoped I wouldn't have to give him something else. Of course not! I thought, but as Christmas drew closer, the thought of him not having something to unwrap on Christmas day was making me feel bad, so I made up the other fabric I had ordered from Spoonflower at the same time.


I enjoyed making this shirt, as I gave considerable reign to my tendency to overembellish - something I generally have to restrain when making man clothes.

That is a chain machine embroidery stitch, being topical and holding the placket inside down most effectively.


These are the cuff buttons, with a little bullion stitch hand embroidery, which no one will ever see, as my husband will wear this shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

So here is the flat felled seam on the sleeves, which will be constantly visible.

Unfortunately I was not nearly so impressed with this fabric as I was with the first bicycle shirt.
The fabric is an off white, and does not have as pleasant a hand as the other piece. In addition, the print is off grain, and as the print is rather large, this was an issue in pattern matching.

I chose to match at the centre back yoke, and let the other wheels be a little off, which I think looks OK. I did I kept the back pleats at the sides, as shown in the pattern, rather than in the centre, which I generally prefer. I used the same central only matching technique with the sleeves at the yoke seam. At the front, I matched the wheels across the placket, so I hope the fronts being off grain does not affect the hang of the shirt too much.

I topstitched using my hand cranked Singer 28. It has a beautiful straight stitch, and made the topstitching very easy.

I used a black and white pinstriped shirting cotton from Michael's fabric for the collar and cuff contrast, with self fabric for the placket and cuff interfacing, and fusible shirt interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply for the collar and stand.


Off topic, I took the photographs on our back verandah, which is at canopy level for our Lilli-Pilli trees, in fruit at the moment. This fig bird was eating the Lilli-Pillies 2 metres away from me.

Does this look like a Christmas card to you?
It looked even better when the bird had 3 berries in its beak, matching its cheek plumage perfectly.

Slight shirt strangeness in not-for-me November, Vogue 8096

My husband is a most conservative dresser. He saw Mario's Dr. Who Dalek shirt, by Karen of Sewing by the Seat of My Pants whilst I was reading her blog some months ago.
He was very impressed. He suggested that a shirt with bicycles on it would be equally amusing and well appreciated.
I was astounded. I thought the men of my aquaintance had no fun with their clothes. How could I resist such an opportunity? Even if it was another Vogue 8096....


The fabric is from Spoonflower, with our cycling group logo on it. My husband designed the team logo some years ago, and I secretly filched it from his computer files and had Spoonflower print it on the fabric. Unfortunately this is quilting fabric, not shirting cotton, but the print turned out nicely.

I was not confident of matching at the collar and cuffs etc, so used a stripey shirting fabric from Michael's fabrics as a contrast.


I rather like the front placket effect that reminds me of a road. I used David Page Coffin's Shirtmaking book for the construction techniques - except for the armscye seams. These are overlocked and topstitched in a manner worthy of a quilting cotton shirt.

I did match the back pleat, but that was all.


I was planning to save this as a Christmas present, but having finished it before the end of year cycling party, handed it over early for an outing.
He was very pleased.
Can anyone explain why this appreciation does not convert to modelling for photographs?
I don't think Genivieve the dressform has quite the right figure for this shirt.

UFO, one down, one to go, Vogue 8096 men's shirt

I have trouble with UFOs. They lurk, balefully, in my sewing room creating a nasty sense of guilt whenever I start something else. At the beginning of the week, I had two of them, and could hardly see through the gloom in there. Something had to be done.



This is the failed birthday shirt - the one that had flat felled 1/8 inch armscye seams with backward sleeves, placket completed. Nasty behaviour, wasn't it? It has been looking at me since mid July.

A few weeks ago I gave up on the unpicking and sliced off the seam. This was disturbingly satisfying.

Naturally this created a fitting issue, so the partial shirt had to sit on Genevieve the dressform for a few weeks whilst I worked out what to do (and started some other sewing). I decided to slice off the body seams as well, making the shirt a little more narrow in the body as well as the shoulders. I would like to show you that this was fortuitous, as the shirt now fits better than the previous versions, but my model was not willing to have a second photo shoot after the first one at work turned out rather blurry and crumpled - looking.
This shirt was made to order, nearly. Carolyn posted a few months ago about the problem with wearing out very useful basics - do you make the same thing, or make your wardrobe more varied? As far as my husband is concerned, the answer to this is that you replace the item exactly. He wore out the first shirt that I made him, and asked for its twin.
However, I could not cope with this. I need variation in my sewing. I cheated. This is the same fabric (chambray colour oxford cloth cotton shirting fabric) and the same pattern, but I changed a few details.


I used a Greek key embroidery stitch to reinforce the back pleat, and across the top of the chest pocket. The undercollar uses contrast fabric.

I used the constrast fabric to make offset partial plackets. I am fond of the buttons, but as they are an unusual colour, stitched the left over one close to the hem.


The inner cuff and the plackets are contrast too.

The other UFO has been stopped by the requirement for 2 lightweight fawn seperating zips, which are not available locally, and must be ordered. I think this need for ordering should stop the gloomy emmations. I am sure I have some very cheerful and tasteless fabric somewhere that could fix the mood in the sewing room!

Vogue 8096 again

I finished this shirt almost immediately after the last one, but didn't need any chocolate to do it. This fabric is not nearly such good quality as the Michael's, but I just like it better.

I would like to point out that Carol is a sewing-for-blokes genius. She said the trick was to just make the shirt, and it would be worn, and she was right. Despite scorning this fabric in the selection phase, my husband was asking when the shirt would be finished once he saw it hanging around without its buttons.

He even modeled it without a bribe. I must still have brownie points from the kayak trip. He still wants to be headless though. Maybe he is worried after I told him Mary Nanna said this fabric would make him a chick magnet. He said he has enough chicks. (Would anyone like to borrow an almost teenage girl for a week or so? Only good homes need apply. She is good with small children so long as they are not her brother.)

Now back to the other shirt. There were questions, well, one question.
Gail asked
"Will it be worn with a tie, or is 'business' more casual in the north."
I am not sure that I am qualified to comment on the casualness or otherwise of business dress in country Queensland. The lawyers up here wear ties to court, but not in their rooms, the bank manager doesn't wear a tie, the mayor wears a tie sometimes, the funeral director wears a tie, but I can't think of anyone else who does on a daily basis. Some of the older farmers always wear a tie when they come to town, but they are much better dressed than the general population.
My husband does not wear a tie to work, maybe his shirt is better described as a "work shirt" than a business shirt.
He could wear it with a tie though.
I shaped the collars during construction...

and I tried it out with a tie for you.

It doesn't match, but there are only two ties in this house. This makes me realize how clever the Country Road peeping contrast placket is. If you were a tie wearing sort, you would look all official and plain at work, but if you took your tie off for Friday afternoon drinks, your shirt would look much more casual and interesting with the contrast fabric.
Here is the shirt with the other tie owned by my husband.
I don't think this tie is a good idea, but it gives me a chance to show you that the plaid actually does match at the front.

The shirt

On Thursday, I had the morning off work. I had weeded the garden, made bread and completed some other unusual virtuous householdish task before I realized that what I was really doing was avoiding THE SHIRT.
After a reviving medication with some Lindt ginger chocolate (in order to get over the shock of such profound self analysis) I finally made buttonholes, and sewed on the buttons, which were all that was left. The relief!

Here is my headless husband wearing the shirt over his kayaking clothes. You cannot see the bottom of the shirt because I have been forbidden to display the strange sight of a business shirt worn over board shorts.
The only reason I have a photograph modelled by my husband is that I am full of wifely brownie points as he is away for the next 3 days kayaking. We plan to watch girly movies and paint our toenails (after the swimming carnival), sounds hard, doesn't it? My son is not too pleased with this plan, but he will have to suffer.
I might do some sewing too.

The thing about boring, tricky sewing, is that it is much easier to do something else. Would you like to see how much knitting I have finished over the past 2 weeks whilst I have not been making this shirt?
No, of course not, instead I will show you some pattern matching. Please attend closely to the good bits and ignore the rest. This fabric may appear innocuous, but really it is a diabolical rectangular plaid, and only had any inclination to match in one direction.

I couldn't match the whole sleeve, so I matched at the top. I did some fussy cutting out of the collar and undercollar, but that was before I remembered that you have to stretch and shape the dratted thing, so it was a pointless exercise.

The back shirt yoke seam is quite strongly curved in this pattern (Vogue 8096 - adjusted- can't remember how much), and I was not able to match the pattern perfectly here. I chose to match in the centre, as I felt that was the most noticeable region.
I was very disappointed not to be able to use the diagonal for the yoke and button placket, as Kiltsnquilts,BetsyV and Elizabeth suggested. I am sure this would have made the shirt more interesting to make, but the rectangular plaid got to me there too, I cannot cope with asymmetrical diagonals, so had to wrestle with the regular matching instead.

In an attempt to make things a little more interesting, I used chambray cotton for the inner collar stand, and the inner parts of both button bands. I left a little chambray band sticking out once the shirt is buttoned, an idea I stole from a Country Road shirt, and I quite like the effect. What I don't like, is that if the shirt was pulled down with the buttons fully at the top in each buttonhole, those horizontal stripes would match perfectly. Just imagine the shirt has been put on properly could you? Why did I sweat over that?

I also used chambray for the sleeve plackets and for the inner cuff. My husband always wears his shirt sleeves rolled up, so I have to do something really obvious to the plackets for any decoration to be noticeable. Please excuse the blurriness of this shot, he was muttering " How many photographs do you need of one shirt?" by this stage, and I was worried the kayaking trip might turn into 2 weeks in the Whitsundays.
At this point I would normally whinge and whine about the rolled hems and flat felling, but since Elizabeth gently encouraged me to practice using these previously cantankerous feet, they both behaved very nicely for this project. I should practice tricky techniques more often.
Instead I will refer you to Elizabeth's expose of David Page Coffin's ridiculous seam allowance expectations. Please note I did not use any 1/8 inch seam allowances in this shirt!