Two more stress free shirt sewing hints

Hi folks.

There are a few other short tips on stress free shirt sewing that I would like to make sure to pass on. 

The first one, on buttonholes was mentioned in my last week's free newsletter for new and returning sewists (you can sign up by sending me a message through the form at the top of this page), but I think is worth repeating for those who missed it.

First up, shirt plackets.

These aren't too hard if you are methodical about it, but the marking can be a pain. What I do now for any detail the requires precision, like a welt pocket or these plackets, is to trace off the stitching/cutting line markings on tracing paper and pin that directly to the fabric.

Then, using a smaller than normal stitch length because this will make removing the paper easier, I stitch and cut the fabric as required. Note that below I have made these so many times I no longer put in the slash lines within the stitching box but of course you can do that:

Secondly I spray starch the buttonhole area before I make buttonholes in fine fabrics. I find that the dense satin stitching pulls in the fabric. This reduces the cutting area to next to nothing, and the starching eliminates this. Below is a shot of two buttonholes. The larger one at the bottom was made on starched fabric. The small one at the top was made in fabric that had not been starched. Both samples were made in two layers of fabric and one layer of interfacing:

On another note I have revised the instructions for french seaming the shirt in the last post. It appears that I reversed the right/wrong side parts, not surprising if you know my need for good copy editing, and I apologize if there was any confusion.

Finally I got an email yesterday that said one of the best men's shirt patterns I use the All Day Shirt by Liesl is on sale this week, until Saturday, for 50% off with the discount code  July2019 

Stress free shirt sewing: hems and seams

I have a few other details to discuss on how to sew shirts with less stress.

The first of these is how to sew a curved hem. I am not totally happy with the way the hem looks on my son's shirt in the last post (why don't those boys iron more?) but I saw that shirt before it was sent out and it wasn't wavy. The lesson here is that this pattern has a shaped side seam and for a casual shirt on this straight up and down guy I have to remove all curve. And in a casual camp collar style shirt like this one I will do a square shape with vents in the side next time.

Back on topic.

The curved shirt hem is a difficult one for most sewing folks. The straight parts at the front and back are easy, they are on grain, but once you get to the curved places at the side the grain moves off to something closer to bias and under the action of pressing and sewing it can so easily stretch and bow out. 

There is a lot of good advice out there about stay-stitching etc. to avoid this, but my nerves are something I like to restore, not erode. So when I sew so this is what I do instead.

I hem the fronts and the back of the shirt before I sew the side seams. 

The reasons for doing this are:

• It is easier to press and sew up one small hem at a time
• Any bias that exists, even if I elect to stay-stitch (I don't always do this in high thread count stable shirt fabrics) is pushed towards the side seam and I can trim it off before sewing those seams
• This is the way many ready-to-wear shirts are made - look for a little patch many RT

The process is simple:

1. I press up the hem allowance, turning the raw edge under on both front and back pieces before I do anything else to them, like sew on the front bands. These pressing lines are good markers.
2. I sew the bands onto the shirt, but before I topstitch them down I fold them back and sew along the bottom, just like you would at the bottom of a facing in a blouse. I turn and press this to the right side and then top stitch the bands in place.
3. I then stitch the hems, following my previous pressing marks.

Now to the seams, sleeve and side.

I don't serge any of my seams in my shirts. Yes it is fast and easy but I feel it is part of the culture of shirt-making, all other construction is enclosed with yokes, bands etc. to have all raw edges, even those covered by serging, hidden.

Of course the standard is to make flat felled seams, and I have made a lot of those with a felling foot, but that kind of work, particularly when you get to the tricky step two of edge-stitching down a raw edge, is nerve-wracking.

And we are sewing stress free right?

So after much experimentation I have decided to use french seams for my shirts, two different ways, and to top stitch them to look like flat felled, mimicking the appearance of RTW shirt seams.

To set in the sleeves- a conventional french seam:

1. Make a french seam, step one wrong sides together, step two and final stitching from the inside.
2. Top stitch close to the folded edge of the encased seam, which will give the appearance of a single line of topstitching from the right side. Note how this eases in the extra bulk of the sleeve cap but keeps this hidden from the right side:

To sew the side seams- a french seam done in reverse with the encased seam in on the outside:

1. Make a french seam, step one right sides together, step two and final stitching from the outside- this will catch the hem allowances.
2. Press the encased seam allowance to the back of the shirt and top stitch close to the folded edge, giving the appearance of a flat felled seam.

Here is how this looks at hem level, from the wrong side.

First before the final top stitching is done:

And then after the final top stitching is done on the right side:

Done and not at all stressful.

Sewing shirts the stress free way: collar bands and collars

Well here we go.

First things first.

I always interface both collar pieces and both band pieces. Fabric has life and stretch and grain. If you are going to attach two identical pieces together, things are just going to work out so much better if you have set up the same way.

An un-interfaced collar is apt to stretch and grown a bit more than an interfaced collar. So it is completely inevitable that when you try to attach them, the un-interfaced unit is going to be a little bit bigger than the one with the interfacing.

Why set yourself up for trimming and stressing and trying to ease one piece into another, or even worse, having to unpick little pleats that have appeared in the stitching?

Interface both collars and stands and you will have the security of attaching like things to each other.

Of course you don't want to over stiffen your collar. I did that once years ago and ended up with red marks on my neck.

You get around this by using a lighter weight interfacing because you will be working with two layers.

There is also the issue of keeping the interfacing out of the seam lines. Interfacing in the seams will just fight you the whole way, and no amount of pressing the finished product will make it dissolve.

Here are your seam allowance interfacing options:

1. Carefully trim away exactly 1/2" from around your interfacing so, when attached, 1/8" will be caught in the stitching - best to have it caught and not free floating. I do not do this because it is boring and I am inaccurate and also I am trying to sew stress free with a wandering mind.

2. Use a light weight fusible like a knit or Sewer's Dream, a really lightweight knit I had arrive in the mail yesterday on your recommendations. The idea here is that the interfacing is adding some body but it is flexible. If you interface the whole collar and band you will probably be OK with this providing you trim the seam allowances down.

3. Use a lighter woven interfacing, like I did with this shirt. The woven non fusible adds some crispness and is easy to remove from the seam allowances. As I showed a few posts back attach it, cut the same size as the collar and band pieces, with some quick hand basting. After I am done stitching I trim the excess out of the seam allowances as closely as I can with my scissors.

Now onto the collar and band:

1. Step one is to complete the collar: 

Stitch, trim out any woven interfacing from the seam allowances if that's what you are using, turn, and press. 

Top stitch around the edges - I use my edgestitching foot so that's a no brainer.  When it comes to making sure your stitches don't pack up at the corner, just swing the other collar end under the back of the foot as a "Hump jumper" to keep the foot level - it will be the perfect thickness.

2. Sew the collar bands to the top of the shirt. sandwiching the body of the shirt in between them:

I do this in two stages, one collar on and then the other, because the less fancy you get the easier and more fool proof it is. You can see here where I have trimmed the interfacing from the seam allowances.

3. Next do the ends of the bands: 

I just fold the front out of the way a bit and pin it still then stitch each curved end. I back stitch near the bottom but don't back stitch when I stop close to the collar opening. I use small stitches because small stitches go around curves easier and by not back stitching at the end I can unpick more easily if I have to.

I take it easy and like to check at this stage to make sure the stitching starts right at the button band (you should be able to feel it) and restitch until it is right. You want that collar end to flow right into the shirt button bands.

I always stop this stitching a safe distance away from the collar opening. I can catch and close that later with top stitching and I like to have a little wiggle room when it is time to put in the collar. Less stressful this way.

Here is the collar end stitched:

And here it is after trimming just before each end is turned and pressed. At this point I would also press under the seam allowances of the collar opening.

4. Drop in the collar:

Slide the collar into the opening. It is really useful here if the opening is a little bigger than you need. Pin the collar to the inside neck band and stitch it in - it would probably be tricky to get the stitching right to the end but do your best, go as far as you can and don't worry at all about that extra unstitched  inch or two, you will catch that later in top stitching.

5. Hand stitch the outer band to the under collar:

Don't freak out it's not a lot of hand stitching and it is under the collar right? The nice thing about hand stitches is that you can take them out easily as you go, which cannot be said of machine stitches.

Here is how that looks pinned in position from the under collar side:

Now when you hand stitch this down the secret is to take a tiny stitch with your needle and to hide the needle under the fabric before you take the next stitch. When you can't see the needle you won't see the thread:

If you don't pull that thread too tight once you press the band the stitches will disappear and look like this:

Last step is to top stitch all around the band from the outside using an edge stitching foot. This last stitching will close up any tiny openings around the collar too.

So that's it, a piece of cake.

Any questions?

Sewing shirts the stress free way: the collar and dreaded collar stand. Part one, why this is hard

O.K. 

There are many ways to stitch a stand collar on a shirt. There are some great instructions already written by many wonderful sewers and teachers. And I am sure those methods are correct and work well, particularly for folks who make a lot of shirts and have the whole thing down.

The thing is that not everyone sews a whole lot of shirts, regularly at least, and not to practice makes perfect stage, undoubtedly because the I-am-so-fed-up-with-this-thing I am going to pitch it in the corner stage comes first. 

A lot of us sew a lot of different things in our sewing lives. Shirts only come around the rotation every now and then, unfortunately, often in the shape of gifts for men, when we are under extra pressure not to screw up.

Also not everyone wants to concentrate all that hard every step of the way. Some of us would rather sew something relaxing that makes us feel pleased with ourselves.

Both these things describe me, or they have for a long time in my sewing life. As a result, I have worked out a way to tackle the dreaded shirt collar and stand in a system that has placed an extremely high priority on not stressing me out, while still producing a very good result.

I often take this approach when I am trying to make my own sewing easier. Usually I start by figuring out ahead of time what disasters I can see coming, and then try to figure out a way to avoid them.

So let's start with what can go wrong. Tell me if I have forgotten anything:

1. The collar is off centre, meaning the space between where the collar ends and that curvy part of the band are different on each side. Your male wearer will always notice this first thing.

3. The collar band is all lumpy with little bumps that no matter how hard you try to trim out are still there, up until the time you trim so closely you open up the seam.

4. The shapes of the curves at the ends of the band are different. One may be OK but if it is, the price you have paid for this is that the other one is all wobbly. You know one end of the band is a curve and the other one sort of squarish.

5. Topstitching around the collar band is next to impossible. See #3, bumps, and #4, different shapes. Despite your blood pressure doubling, yourself squinting, and all the advice you have read about hump jumpers and cardboard templates under your belt, and despite trying really, really hard and going slow, by the end of it you are pretty sure your stitching looks like the dog did it.

6. When you are finished you notice that you missed a bit and there is some unstitched, frayed fabric hanging out of the end of the collar.

7.  You also notice too that the collar band doesn't line up quite with the edge of the front plackets, like the shirts hanging in your husband's closet all do.

Finally, and this is the most important thing to my mind, the whole process is just no fun. 

It's sewing, which you love, but there is nothing to enjoy here. You already have your seam ripper handy.

No one can do this you decide, or  - the one thing I don't want any sewer to ever think - they just must be better at sewing that you are.

You feel powerless. 

You may even have trimmed the seam allowances to 1/4" like the experts said you should to make it easier. You may even have trimmed them again to 1/8" like they advised, right up to the point your seam frayed away. 

You tried really hard to do what you were told.

But who really can make this work while those tiny bits of fabric disappear under a moving needle, where you no longer can see them, and over moving feed dogs, while you try to rotate an entire shirt (worse still if it is stuffed burrito style into the collar - take about lumps and bumps)?

Well I can tell you not a lot of people can make a success of all of this. And certainly not folks who only sew shirts every now and then. And particularly not those  trying to make a shirt on December 23 for someone they really love.

So what is a person to do?

Try an easier way.

And I will show you that tomorrow.

Deal?

Sewing shirts, the stress free way

I have a folder on the desktop of my laptop called "Stress free sewing." In it I put all my ideas on how to put clothes together in the most laid back way possible. I have had an idea that this would be a good book someday, but I doubt if any one would publish it.

It takes a real garment sewer, maybe not a publisher, to understand how much stress sewing the complicated way can be, and how important it is to discover a way to do the most challenging jobs in ways that are relaxing.

But then again I have you.

I sew a lot of shirts for the men in my family.  I love them but I don't always find the process that easy. Men are so much more particular than women. Maybe this is because they have only a few categories of clothing, shirts pants and tee shirts for example, and so have time to get really precise about preferences. I know my four year old grandson already has a long list of things he doesn't wear - unlike his sisters who will wear any outfit providing it involves at least four different prints and sparkles somewhere. 

Over time I have figured it out. I know who wants their short sleeves 1/4" shorter, and who wants them a 1/4" longer. I know who has the largest neck and the longest arms. And who doesn't. It has taken my a few years but the fits and preferences are in the memory bank.

Which leaves me with technique.

I want to make these shirts without fussing around with them. So here are some of the techniques, all the work arounds I do to minimize mistakes and extra effort. It might take me a few blog posts to do it all but for a start tonight I will talk about this shirt and the tools that helped me make it.

This is my son-in-law again. I used to always say he was nicer to me than my own children until they told me not to say that any more, but really he is. I made this shirt out of a really light chambray so he would wear it to work or someplace in the hotter weather:

His 6'5" and I think I got the length right, for the untucked look.

Since the fabric was so fine I definitely didn't want a fusible interfacing so I used a sewn-in that I basted to both the collars and collar bands - I always interface both so they behave the same way when I sew them together. I don't sweat it and just use a big basting stitch to do this:

I keep the stitches big to just hold because after I stitch the pieces together it is quick to just pull the basting out and then trim the interfacing really close to the stitching line with my duck bill scissors.

The other thing I had to think about with this fabric was topstitching. I always figure it is really important to keep things to scale. A thin fabric meant I really had to topstitch close the all edges - edge stitch really- to match the fineness of the fabric.

However since I was committed to stress free construction I pulled out the edge stitching foot that gives me such a nice big ridge to keep on the edges of fabric - so even if my mind wandered, and it always does, my stitching wouldn't. Here is the picture of that foot, although my actual foot is an older version Bernina foot, same idea:

 And here are some topstitching samples, that show absolutely more accuracy than I could myself produce  with an ordinary foot without considerable stress being added to my stress- free experience:

Front shirt placket

The other tool that I considerate frustration reducing is a straight stitch foot. 

One of the most annoying things that can happen when you start a seam of course is that the fabric gets pushed down that wide space in the throat plate that is there to accommodate the swing of the zig-zag foot. The straight stitch foot reduces that area and really stabilizes the stitching area as a result, which makes for nicer stitch quality too:

Of course I don't need to tell you not to zig zag with this foot.

So that's a beginning on my low stress shirt making. Tomorrow why don't we talk about collars and the dreaded collar stand?  I have touched on this in the blog before but I think I have better pictures now and easy is always worth repeating.

On process as well as product and how I sew shirts the relaxed way

A week or so ago when it was mental health awareness week ,many sewers spoke on social media about how sewing was good for their mental health. Myself I actually think I have a whole blog that probably expresses that.

I think we can identify with that experience, and the role our sewing plays in how we go through life in one piece.

What struck me most however was an Instagram post by someone whose work I admire. This younger sewer, and a good one, said that sewing helped her occasional depression and anxiety but that, to be honest, sometimes trying to do things right only added to her stress.

I have been thinking about this a lot. 

Sewing is of course an elective activity. (I have heard that there are folks out there who don't do it and actually buy their clothes). It should therefore be an addition to your life, not just one more thing to add to the try to achieve list.

This of course doesn't mean I am an advocate for sloppy sewing, far from it, but learning and getting more confident should also be a nice way to spend time along the way.

To my mind the value of sewing is as much about enjoying the process as the product.

If I were to put into one sentence what my philosophy of sewing would be it would be that finding the ways to create clothes that keep it stress free as well as high quality are what matter most to me.

The question we need to ask ourselves IMO is how can I make this part of the garment in a way that I will enjoy the sewing, without angst.

I am still and always trying to figure this out.

Sometimes that involves some personal go-to construction methods that I use to put together things I sew a lot. 

These personal systems are sort of a combination of my own short cuts, and the kind of fixes that I build in to deal with problems that I know from experience are lurking on the horizon.

Today I would like to talk about how I make the regular fun, print shirts that I give my sons and son-in-laws for presents.

These are not dress shirts. I have made those and have collar stayed and flat felled with the rest and the best of them but these are different - more the casual shirts that the boys wear to parties or out. 

Untucked as opposed to tucked in shirts.

I am going to go through the process for my own stress free casual shirt making but the note that this is not the way most folks might sew shirts and certainly not the classic way to do it.

However in my life this works when I want to make a fun shirt to put a smile on someone's face.

Here goes.

The collar and collar band.

One of the things I do is to interface both the collar and band pieces with a light to medium weight woven fusible, rather than using a proper crips shirt interfacing on only one collar and band.

I find that fusing tends to make fabric more rigid. So if it is only on one side of a unit, say only one side of the band, it is less mobile that the other piece. This means when you try to fit the two of them together the un-interfaced piece is just going to be a little bit stretchier, and you might find yourself struggling to fit that tiny bit extra fabric in say the neck area.

Since any kind of struggling is out in my world when I can eliminate it,  I interface all the collar and band pieces so they behave the same way and will fit together easily. And to my mind two layers of mid weight interfacing equals one layer of something stiffer.

Note I always try to cut the interfacing without seam allowances but if, after stitching, I see some fragments within the seam allowance I trim it out. Interfacing in the seam allowances makes turning a  collar and band neatly too hard.

Construction step one.

1. Make up the collar and top stitch it. 

Of course turning the corner and top stitching can be tricky because the foot is not level after the turn. 

The usual fix for this is to put a shim under the back of the foot so it won't stick at the corner and make those annoying little packed up stitches. Ideally the shim should be the same thickness as the collar. I find the quickest way to find exactly that is to swing around the other corner of the collar and put it under the back of the foot just while you do these stitches:

This little trick always give me nice corner stitching. Once made up of course baste the cut edges of the collar together:

Construction step two:

Sew both band pieces to the shirt along the neck edge, sandwiching the shirt between them:

You will notice I hope that the neck edge has been both stay stitched and clipped a lot so I was able to pull it straight. It is easy to sew a straight edge to a straight edge, so much easier than trying to sew a straight edge to a curved edge, so it is important to make that curved edge of the neckline straight - clipping will do that for you.

Once you have the bands stitched on, press them up. At this point it might be useful to also press under a seam allowance on the top edge of the outer (away from the neck) band:

Construction step three:

Sew the little curve ends of the band. 

Now this is the part that gives you palpitations so to avoid that we are going to take it slow and avoid stressful situations. This means giving yourself a chance to fix up any mistakes or crooked sewing.

Go easy on yourself.

To do this shorten your stitch length, always easier to go around a curve in little steps rather than in big steps, and don't get in involved in backstitching when you start and stop. The little stitches should hold it and in the off chance you have to unpick anything, best if you don't have to try to untangle any knotted, backstitched thread.

To set up this stage of construction fold the front edges of the shirt in a bit to get them out of the way. I don't do any "Burrito" method that involves lots of high level rolling that I find fabric and nerve fraying, just, in this method, make a little fold like this:

Once the front of the shirt is out of the way turn the ends of the band down, right sides together and lower your needle into the point where the band meets the shirt and stitch around the curve and in a bit. 

You could, if you were a different kind of person than me measure how big a space you need to leave for putting the collar in but I sort of ballpark this and make sure I stop my stitching a bit before where the collar starts. 

I do this because it is a real pain, and sort of defeating the laid back process we have going here, to have to try to wiggle an interfaced collar into a too small space. Any tiny gap between the band stitching and the collar will be fixed up and closed with the eventual topstitching anyway or even the odd minute hand stitch if no one is looking:

Hopefully you can see here how in this case my first set of stitching was a bit wobbly (watching the final episode of Outlander on Netflix while I was sewing which may have had something to do with it) so I just went back, took a run at it again along the neck stitching again, pivoted at the corner and tried to do a better job. I did just that and Jamie survived another near death experience. Maybe we both did.

Construction step number four:

From here on you are cruising.

Next turn the corners of the band and lay the collar so the top collar is right sides to the inner band and stitch the collar onto that band.  

Below you can see how this looks from the back of the shirt at this point, collar attached and only the outer band to be hand stitched to the under collar where no one will see it. 

Note: yes I know there are slick ways to just double sided tape this down and capture it all in one round of perfect topstitching, but at this point that would require a person rising to the occasion performance-wise and being fairly precise. 

I find it easier to keep watching Outlander and leisurely stitching this down by hand with little slip stitch (I believe the how-to for that is in my book and on my YouTube channel).

And here is what that hand-stitching looks like:

Construction step number five:

Taking it slow all there is to do now is topstitch around the band, and later to make the buttonholes. 

You will notice again  I do not use a big stitch to do this. I was taught to proportion the stitch length to the thickness of the fabric and with shirt fabrics a stitch length of about 2.0-2.5 seems to work, again also makes curves easier to navigate. 

Note too that since a shirt like this is never worn with a tie I will later make a button hole in the band but don't cut it open. Looks neater that way and less traumatic.

That curvy hem:

Another area that can cause stress in shirt making is the hem. 

A shirt tale hem is a fine idea but the bias nature or that dip up can go wobbly and flare out. There are of course many intelligent ways to deal with this, stay stitching and paying care to pressing etc. but when I am sewing a relaxed shirt this is how I do it. BTW this is also the same method you see in many RTW shirts.

Construction step one:

Stitch on the front bands but before you top stitch them down fold them back on themselves, right sides together, just like you would handle to bottom of a facing in a blouse.

Stitch a hem distance from the bottom edge through all layers, trim, turn, and press. 

Then topstitch the bands. This gives a nice neat edge to the bands and avoids any clunky awkward hem bumps later (remind me to go back and trim some of those thread ends):

Construction step two:

Now before you sew any side seams make a narrow hem on the back of the shirt and on both fronts. Only then sew the side seams. 

If I am continuing to sew in an easy on me way I will probably straight stitch the side seams and then serge them together.

Construction step three:

Press the seam allowances towards the back and then, and I got this trick from looking at RTW, make a little row of straight stitches to hold it down and secure the flow of the hem at the side seams. In real life this is actually flatter than it looks here in the close up, but even still might give this another press:

a

So there you have it, with my apologies to my friends David Coffin and Maris Olsen for violating a few rules here, but really for gift giving type casual shirts this is a pleasant way to do them.

Have I been clear enough?