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

Vogue Man's Shirt 8889

Although I am not in Carolyn's league with my multiple uses of a men's shirt pattern, I have made 9 shirts from shirt pattern Vogue 8096 since November 2011. My husband was suitably pleased with all the shirts and I had no reason to buy another pattern.
This didn't stop me from buying the new release Vogue 8889. I thought Vogue should be encouraged for including a man shirt that is cut slightly differently and has actual design details, and perhaps I was just a bit tired of V8096.





However, in my sewing room, most of the design details included were rejected. He vehemenently rejected the cute little pintucks on the yoke, which I expected, and has a strong  dislike of button down collars, so the concealed buttoning undercollar was not an option.
So what is left that makes this shirt different from his other shirts?

1. Side panels.
These are shaping panels on the back, but merely decorative at the front. I cut them on the bias to meet as chevrons at the side seams, as I felt that all this extra work should actually be noticeable.



2. Tiny little collar
This is not my favourite collar, but it is slightly different and looks OK once I used collar trimming and shaping techniques from David Page Coffin's Shirtmaking book.

3. Concealed buttons by a Chesterfield front





 - this is very easy but looks as if you have done something clever. You need to stitch down the outer fold in between the buttons (I did this by hand, catching only the underlayer of the folded fabric) so that the fold does not flap open and display your buttons in this loose fitting shirt, but this was the only omission in Vogue's instructions in how to construct this sort of placket, and would not be necessary in a close fitting shirt.

What is not different is the fit. This shirt says it is loose fitting, whereas the earlier pattern does not mention fitting ease at all, but both shirts are quite similar in girth in a size 38.   I think this is a mistake on Vogue's part. Shirt 8889 could quite easily be much more fitted, having shaping in the seams in the back  and if I make it again, I will taper to a 34 in the body of the shirt. I object to sewing shaping seams when I don't need them.

Finding this shirt rather dull, I added some play with the stripes. I cut the front stitching line of the yoke on grain (and on stripe). This was a tip passed on to me by Ann Rowley (currently on BBC2 being a super sewing star in the Great British Sewing Bee), who mentioned in a shirtmaking thread at Stitchers Guild that this would automatically make a 2 part yoke chevron at the back.
Look!


David Page Coffin mentions this technique in his Shirtmaking book too. His take "a distinctly British touch that looks quite odd- but not uninteresting to the American eye" demonstrates to me that this Australian eye has British tendencies. I think this looks rather smart and makes stripe matching at the sleeve very easy.




In keeping with the chevron theme, I cut out the inner collar stand in two parts so that I could have a centre back chevron here too.

I used the sleeve plackets from the earlier Vogue pattern.



 I have cut out a template with 1/4 inch seams from the earlier pattern, and could not bear to do it again for something with only minor differences, that will be worn rolled up at all times anyway. I labelled the shirt here for my own amusement.

The shirt construction did have a few hiccups. I was forewarned by the review by Peter of Male Pattern boldness that this pattern has drafting errors. Although these were less striking in the size 38 than in Peter's size 34, like him, I found that the collar stand centre back was off centre (about 3mm). I also found that the back yoke did not line up with the lower back and felt that the sleeve was too wide for the armsyce seamline.  There was no finished garment measurement for the neck nor waist circumference.
Shirts are fiddly and require precision sewing. There are no wow factors in a conservative man's shirt, so you have to take pleasure in stripe matching, so these errors just make the construction more difficult than it needs to be.
Overall I quite like this pattern. I appreciated the inclusion of such finishing details as instructions to flat fell some seams ( I used a flat felling foot and 1/8 or 1/4 inch seams rather than Vogue's, but still...)
This shirt was intended as a trial garment. My husband does not participate in fitting, and does not like to model for the blog, but kindly agreed to some snaps at the bottom of the back stairs when on the way to work this morning (please excuse background unsuitableness and contrasty lighting, I have to work with what I get). Unfortunately, I think this shirt is too loose to show any of the non-yoke design details.



 You may see another version of this shirt with fitting changes, but this is not at the top of my list.

Stashbusting 2.2 m of shirting cotton 2010, Michael's fabrics
 

Burda Style 02-2010-106 seersucker hiking blouse

Poor Burda. I feel so sorry for the designers sometimes, having their snazzy fashionable clothes turned into practical garments in practical fabrics that are then unstyled with a bucket hat and hiking boots.



 At least the location is superb
 near Bicheno, Tasmania)
Here is Burda's version from their French website. (no technical drawing available there)

 It is a boxy front buttoning shirt with stand collar, long sleeves with cuffs and variations in length and front placket (Version 105, 106A and 106B),  with a slightly shaped over the shoulder yoke. These details are not easy to see in the magazine.



My version, dear readers, was a product of my nearly endless search for the perfect travel garments for the idosyncratic demands of my husband's  our family's holidays. You may have gathered from my blogging absence that I have not been near a computer very often for the last month or so. Part of this was due to a family camping/walking/cycling holiday of 13 days in the beautiful state of Tasmania. The first week of this holiday was all bush/beach/National Park camping, (in hiking tents) which in translation means cold running potable water if you are lucky, and definitely no laundry facilities. A shirt you can wash in a saucepan and trust to mostly dry overnight hung up on a tree branch is highly desirable. An absence of ironing requirements, coolness in wear and sunprotective styling are equally desirable traits.
This shirt came up trumps. All detail photographs were taken of the unironed shirt (eg, as if one were camping), after several weeks of heavy wash and wear.
Fabric: 100% cotton seersucker from Michael's Fabrics, trimmed with shirting cotton from the same place.
Fitting modifications: Square shoulder adjustment, a full bust adjustment via the add-a-dart method, and sleeve length adjustment.
Design modifications: I stupidly misplaced the bust darts, due to measurement errors that may have had something to do with the generosity in volume of a certain glass of wine, and then could not unpick them neatly, so, remembering Shams' masterful use of the double dart  I added another dart placed as much above the correct place as the original one was below and pretended that this was deliberate.  The second dart is very, very skinny, an essence of dart, adding only a minscule amount of shaping.




The Burda shirt is a mullet style in the version I orginially cut out, with a long back and relatively short front, both cut straight across. I did not like this after I had cut it out, so added length to the front after rotating the fabric 90*.


 I then shaped the hem of the shirt to a slight curve at the sides.



With these changes I managed to make a bog standard shirt instead of something fashionable and Burdaesque ;) I quite like the  tunic length, as I can now wear this as a swimsuit cover up or over leggings for the uber casual outfits ubiquitous amongst campers (unless you are Andrea, who has raised camping clothes to a new level)

I used David Page Coffin placket application, rather than Burda's, in a contrast fabric which I also used in the collar stand.



I also used the David Page Coffin collar and cuff application construction techniques. I used self fabric as interfacing for the collar, stand, cuffs and plackets to assist in keeping this shirt as cool to wear as possible.

I divided the yoke in half and cut it on the bias for a chevron effect.

 The yoke was applied using this fully machine sewing method for a lined yoke.

Outcome
I wore this frequently in Tasmania, both unbuttoned, as a jacket over a tank top for sun protection,  and as a regular shirt, either tucked in or worn loose over the waist.



It looked almost respectable when I had to wear my hiking clothes in Hobart ( the camping gear and bike took up all the luggage allowance, so the clothing all had to fit in our carry on bags). I did deeply regret not having something amazing to wear  when the fabulous Carol came into the city in her gorgeous polka dot dress V9668 to meet me for coffee, but this feeling was a shameful product of my own vanity and/or  fitting skills envy which in no way reflects the graciousness of Carol or the majority of the wardrobe needs of my holiday . You may notice that I did not take a photograph of myself with Carol, being well aware that I would suffer badly from sartorial comparison in such a photo (or maybe we were talking too much to stop to take a photograh). ;)
The shirt was very easy to wash and wear. If only I had more of this awesome seersucker in a different colourway, I would make several!

Gratuitous scenic shot from the same walk as the first location shot.

Shirtmaking - the real attempt

I finished a shirt for my husband today. I spent nearly all week making samples, and from Saturday evening to late today making this, so it feels like a major achievement. I have mixed feelings about it.

I liked trying all the details from the David Page Coffin book, but I need a lot more practice at a number of techniques, including rolled hems, edgestitching, free machine embroidery! It is a book to improve sewing skills. I agree with Claudine, who left a comment (I'm paraphrasing)that making a man's shirt is a bit like quilting - I seemed to use my omnigrid and the edging foot an awful lot!

I am happy that this looks just as good as a RTW sports shirt. It took about 12 hours after the toile to make it this way. I think a trip to Myer would be quicker and less expensive - but then my husband would not be quite so pleased with me! Hopefully the next shirt will be much quicker.