The Man's Shirt Finished!

That's me yesterday opening the buttonholes on the shirt with a chisel blade X-acto knife.  After that the buttons got sewn on and it was done!

My husband put it on and liked it!  We even went for a walk and he wore it  --showing it's good enough to wear out of the house.

Sure, there are some tiny things I find wrong with it.  The topstitching got a little wobbly on one spot.  The inside cuff could be a bit better.  But, there are many things right with it.  That front placket and the V-yokes look good.  And where I usually have trouble getting the collar band and placket to meet perfectly --I followed Peter's suggestion to have the edge already folded under and it worked like a charm. 

I don't usually do sew alongs but it was nice to have someone who has made several shirts and knew the tricks to go into such detail and give helpful comments. A thank you to Peter for that  --he put a lot of work into all those posts!

I hadn't made a shirt like this in years and I have to admit there was a love/hate thing going on with it.  Sometimes I loved sewing it; sometimes I hated it.  I'm glad I did it though because as I was finishing it occurred to me that my wardrobe is severely lacking in good basic shirts.  In fact, months ago I bought a number of shirt patterns at the 99 cent sale ($3.99 for Vogue --they never go for 99 cents).  The reason I bought so many similar ones was because I like the sleeves on some but the bodice or collar on others.  There will be some more shirt sewing going on here...maybe after a little break though.

I did learn one of the greatest most stupendous things during the sew along.  Yesterday I sewed one button on by hand, which is my normal way, and dreaded having to sew all the rest on when I thought...my modern sewing machine sews buttons on.  Three minutes later after reading the manual, popping on the right foot, and sewing a practice button I was stitching all those buttons on by machine.  Oh, happy day!  There will more buttons sewn on by machine in the future! 

Advance 3720 Dress Pattern

Unlike last Monday's post with a dress pattern I didn't like, I like this one...very much.  Casual, comfortable, timeless style.  Perfect.  The only thing I don't like about this pattern:  I haven't made it!

Victorian Purse

While digging around for something I came across across great-somebody's bag.  It appears to be silk and silk velvet attached to a purse frame with a ribbon handle.  I don't know what the frame is made of.  It reminds me of tortoise shell but a different color from most of what I've seen.

I should have put a ruler by it to give some scale.  The purse measures about 10 inches from frame top to bottom.  The Victorians seem to have had larger purses than the flappers --but what did they put in them?  Makeup wasn't used much.  No need to carry much money.  I guess maybe calling cards in a case and a hanky.  Perhaps the bag itself was what was important --a beautiful accessory.

Still Sewing Along

Although the men's shirt sew along is over I'm still plodding along.  I finally cut the shirt out yesterday (and the day before).  I had so much trouble!  I had bought exactly the amount of fabric called for on the envelope back and it was just not enough.  Instead of being 45" across my fabric was a tad shorter.  This created a problem fitting everything on.  Also the XL sleeve hung off the edges so I had to open out the fabric and cut one sleeve and then the other without an inch to spare  --in fact, I had to shorten the sleeve by one inch to fit it on.

Back when I was sewing in the 80's the fabric measurements on the backs of patterns always gave a bit extra.  Many times I managed with less.  I've noticed more modern patterns don't do that.  I understand why.  I don't care for useless fabric scraps or the money spent on them, but I didn't care for the jigsaw puzzle fitting I had to do for this shirt. 

A Sweet Dress Pattern

Gag!  This dress in the white version is just too much on the sugary sweet side.  And that model seems a little too old for both that dress and that pose.  As for the blue version...ditch the white gloves and don't stand like that and it might work.

A 1940's House --In Miniature

I found a box of my mother's doll house furniture she had as a girl in mid-1940's and took a few photos of it.  A nice little kitchen.

A front loading washer and wringer.  Want to read an awful story about a wringer that'll make you cringe?    My mother told it to me about some great aunt of hers.  A stout woman who tended to really lean into her work.  Well, she leaned too far in while wringing her clothes and got part of herself caught into the wringer.  You know, the part that sticks out in front.  And apparently not all wringers reverse so well.  (Edit:  Miss Sews-it-all informed me in the comments that that's not a wringer but an iron and even has a link to show a real one that looks exactly like the toy one.  All these years I thought it was wringer!)

The dining room.  I think their table has warped a bit.  The corner cupboard too.  The radiator looks ok though.

The master bedroom.  Twin beds that don't match!  (My mother had to divide the furniture with two other sisters, and I think the beds got mixed up.  My aunts have more of the bedroom stuff and the living room).  The piece lying down has only three legs and won't stand up.

Despite the twin beds there is a nursery. 

And here's the little family itself.  (In a terrible shot --sorry about that).  Notice mom and baby are wearing vintage clothes.

Lest you thought there was nothing sewing related in my post today...a simple cabinet...

...which opens up...

..for the sewing machine inside.  This machine has it's motor in the front and the cabinet doesn't open flat, but it's still a nice vintage machine!

The Man's Shirt Muslin

The pattern I'm using for the sew-along is Simplicity 5366 size XL in the western style -B.  I've made my muslin out of muslin --it was the only cheap fabric I had enough of.  On the pattern envelope you can't see the pockets on this shirt; it's not until you look at the line drawing that they're visible.  Non-functioning pockets under a V yoke seem quite stupid to me so I'm leaving those off.  (A little edit here:  Peter questioned me about those pockets and it turns out they do function because the yoke is not sewn down onto them.  My mistake!  I still don't like them though!)  By following the pattern directions supplemented by Peter's instructions I haven't had any trouble other than my usual collar one...

I always have a little trouble getting the collar band and the front placket to meet absolutely perfectly --where I'm pointing in the photo.  It actually turned out ok on the muslin; hopefully the real thing will do as well.

I don't care for the sleeve placket on this shirt.  It doesn't have the classic men's shirt one with the little roof at the top.  It's the old Slashed Placket with Binding --see #27 above.  I checked in my husband's closet and all his shirts have the classic placket.  I'm considering changing it to the classic one except...

...the moment my husband put the muslin on he rolled up the sleeves!  In twenty years marriage I think I've seen him with his sleeves unrolled less than a dozen times.  And those times he had a suit jacket on.  I'm not sure which placket I use will matter in the end, but I'm still leaning towards the classic one.  There are no cuffs on the muslin.  At this point I don't know that I'll bother.

One side of the front doesn't have its yoke section.  I was running out of fabric and decided one side was enough.  Plus a touch of laziness.


My husband likes the way the shirt fits except that the back seems a bit too long.  It's hard to tell if it's too loose in the photos since he's either slouching or moving.  It fits exactly like many of his RTW shirts.  He's pleased with it and doesn't want any changes to it!

I had a bit of a problem cutting out the XL sleeve.  My muslin is about 45 inches wide and the top sleeve edges of the pattern piece hung off the fabric edges.  I had to unfold the fabric and cut each sleeve separately using a little more fabric than expected.  I hope this pattern fits on my blue fabric I bought for it.  I'll start cutting the real thing in a few days.

Internet Trouble Here

A call to tech service has informed me that my modem is dying.  It only works intermittently at best, and a new one is supposed to arrive today.  If I'm not around for a few days it's because of this.  Yesterday I had no internet access at all!  I am catching up on getting my man's shirt sewn because of it though.

Shell Stitch Hem

Ever since making the Edwardian camisole I've been playing around at making vintage style lingerie and trying different stitches and techniques suitable for it.  I remembered there was a way to do a shell stitch on the sewing machine but had to go in search of exactly how it's done.  I found a tutorial at La Sewista. 

The shell stitch uses a blind hem stitch with a tighter tension to pull in the edge creating the shell.  Unless you have a machine that can reverse the blind hem you have to have your fabric up under the harp of the machine not on the left like normal.  I also found that using the regular zigzag foot worked better for me than the blind hem foot.

I like the results --subtle, nice, and elegant.  I'll put my sample that I did in my sewing notebook with the settings written on it so next time I want to do this I'll know how.

Dress With Options Pattern

One basic dress.  A variety of options.  It has a hip belt, under bust belt, waist tabs, cuffs or no cuffs, collar or scarf.  Perfect for the 1950's woman on a budget. 

The previous owner has penciled in some notes on the envelope.  These never bother me on old patterns since I always read them with curiosity as to what someone did with the pattern.  This one is a price list:  zipper 36 cents, thread 10 cents, taffeta 36 cents.  I think that says buttons 52 cents.  Quite a bargain.

Sewing Along

Truthfully I haven't started sewing yet.  I could hardly wait to get started with the men's shirt sew-along then my week became very busy.

Yesterday I cut out my muslin from cheap muslin.  I decided to do something different and use my rotary cutter.  Normally I always cut clothes with my cardboard mat, pins, and shears.  My rotary cutter is used for quilts and sometimes interfacing.  I cut the back out, stopped, pulled everything off the cutting table, and spread my yellowed old cardboard mat out.  I had tried cutting clothes with a rotary cutter years ago and didn't like it --I still don't like it.  It even made my wrist hurt for a few minutes.  I think because my quilt pieces are straight lines they're easier for me to cut with the rotary cutter.

There are things about the cardboard mat I like, such as sticking my pins right in it:

I'm going to try using self fabric instead of interfacing in my muslin.  I've been very unhappy with interfacings lately.

1950's Style Top Finished

You'll have to take my word for it that this top looks much better on me than on my dressform.  It's cold, drizzly, and dreary here right now, so while I am in the mood to sew my spring clothes, I'm not in the mood to model them. When I have the top on, the bottom section doesn't have all those wrinkles and the neckline lays better.  I was padding my dressform's hips this weekend and might have added too much --I need to remeasure.

I posted last week how I was modifying a vintage pattern to get the top I wanted.  It worked!  And was worth the time.  I now have a basic pattern to use.  I can change the neckline, use darts or tucks at the waist, and can have either a side zipper or button back --all from the same pattern. 

When the weather warms up I'll model this and some of the other stuff I'm working on.