Now about those white shirts

No, I haven't given up. In fact I have been busy investing in white fabric (and to my mind half of sewing at least is fabric selection/collection) :

However my white shirt making got detoured by the change of seasons (which I believe is happening elsewhere - I wore mitts here out to walk the dogs two nights ago) and my impending vacation.


All I wanted to do is make dresses.


I was also getting bored with the look of all the white shirt patterns I have collected. Pretty similar. In fact I also went out in a white shirt and black pants to eat the other week and thought "Oh my god, they're going to think I am a server."


So I definitely am going to be making white shirts, but I am going to be stepping up the design ideas. 


To give you an idea of what I mean here is the vintage pattern I am taking on vacation in my tiny sewing cache:

Warm weather sewing, easy, and interesting to sew. And I am going to be back at the real shirts later in the summer as I gear up for another term of teaching. 


That seems very far away though today.

Adventures in collar making

A while back I posted links to what seemed to me to be the three most popular approaches to collar-on-a-stand making. I now have tried all three and found my favourite, the one that suits my sewing personality.


Here's which one and here's why.


Debbie and Belinda's Insert-the-collar-last method gets this random sewer's vote. It seems to me to be the method I am most likely able to master, yes master, with a bit more practice. The reasons have to do with the fact that this method deflects the tricky sewing into bigger spaces where you can get your hands in there and has space to resew imperfections, rather than ripping out stitches. It also has a few smart tricks (see previous post on why I love smart instructions, preferably with tricks I haven't seen before).


Let me explain, with a list of the reasons this method works for me:


1. In this method the long neckline edge of the bands are sewn first, and independent of the collar, to the neckline edge, sandwiching the shirt between the two. As we all know sewing a flat thing (the bands) to a curved thing (the shirt neckline) can be tricky and the risk of getting those little mini pleaty things caught up in the seam is high, and annoying. Because you have the tops of the bands still open when you do this step, and don't have the collar to worry about yet, it is easier to keep this seam under control and see what you are doing. Also if you work with 5/8" seam allowances there is something for your  hands to hold under the needle and you can cut these seam allowances off to 1/4" after wards - same end effect without the scaring feeling of letting go of little pieces of fabric as they disappear under the presser foot.


2. The curved ends of the stand are then stitched as far as the collar opening, and again because the collar is still not yet involved, it is easy to see and hold onto. The idea of drawing in stitching lines with a template was a good one ( I made a little template cut from the file folder I keep tax stuff in - I am sure in a few months I will wonder what idiot cut a curved shape out of the edge of the folder) and I discovered that if you don't get both curves completely even and the curved the same, you can go back and restitch until they are quite easily, which of course I did, without having to unpick previous stitches and starting that whole fraying process. There is no end of collar bump in this method, much like the Burritto.


This system also calls on one of the Major Rules of Successful Sewing  which is it is always better to do a series of short, in control seams than one big long I-hope-I-am-lucky-and-it-looks-better-from-the-right-side seams. 


3. The last thing you do is pop in the completed collar in the last remaining opening which is at the top of the collar band. I like this because the Tricky Seam was actually a big flat one where you had large pieces to work with to pin and again your hands and eyes could see what you are doing - easy too to compensate for any tiny inaccuracies in how big and opening you left by unpicking the odd stitch or closing a too big gap with top-stitching.


OK, and what would you be worried about in this last seam? That the two sides of the band wouldn't be completely even and that you might have one slip away and miss the top stitching that captures in the collar? Am I right? Of course but, and here is the smart part, before you start this whole process you baste these two edges together, press and then remove the basting stitches - so the two seam allowances you are going to be tucking in around the collar are already perfectly even and pressed ready to go before you even start the collar insertion process.


I mean how smart is that? 


You can see some of the stitches in my straight stitch plate
post and in the shots I will be taking of this latest shirt once I get to the buttonholes.

Opps

I realize the title of this morning's post "a little discipline" may have sounded like a comment on HP.


Didn't mean that. My opening thought when I opened my eyes this morning was that my machine is off for two weeks in the shop and it will require some discipline from me to focus on cutting, planning, and other non-straight stitch tasks.


But my frustrations with HP's minimal instructions (which really read more like a written list of things to do) remain - despite the fact I don't use most guide sheets (except to look at the pictures to see if I am still on track, like most tactile learners a.k.a sewers).


I love a good instruction sheet - in fact some of my best techniques were collected from the advice of clever patterns. I think Kwik Sew is my favourite for clear illustrations and instructions, followed by Jalie, the Big 4 are improving, and when I read BWOF it is for the instructions, which yes are minimal but still every now and then have a really oddball cool technique worth remembering. Even though I decided life, at least this one, is too short for tracing (but hats off to those of you who do) I like to see how they put it all together.


So I was disappointed that my first HP, which I understood to be more RTW in approach, hadn't anything new techniques to teach me, or at least give me the pleasure of reading/seeing nice clear instructions.


I have to get this shirt finished  so you can see what you think. That will probably happen over the next day or two, 
after I take a cutting out and marking papers break.


Tomorrow though I will try to get something down on the best collar method that worked for me.

A little discipline

Almost finished the HP boxy shirt and my machine sort of died, several issues, one must be a loose wire in the foot control - I am not going to get this done doing a series of single stitches. So off it goes for service today.


I am taking this as a sign to take a break and do some serious cutting out of future shirts.


My own feeling is that the machine and I got sort of fed up with Hot Patterns about the same time.


Yes the styling is generally good but there are some details I am not crazy about. A collar on a band that is actually designed to be a bit loose/low (look at the line drawing) and a collar that is very pointy - like blouses my sisters and I wore in grade seven. Not that this doesn't like fine on, but not features that I would make again.

But that's not really it.


The instructions are lousy. I know they are quick notes for people who already know how to sew, and that would include me, but I miss the pictures of a good instruction sheet (who reads the words anyway? Sewers are visual people) and the construction advice is not very clever, and often quite awkward. And there are things like sew to the notch and there isn't that notch printed on the pattern.


I don't know about you but one of the things I enjoy about sewing is the technique. I love a pattern that shows me a clever way to do something, or exhibits some thought about the smartest way to put the pieces together.


We will finish this up on my back-up machine and I will post some pictures for you to decide about, but I have to say that for a premium pattern price I would be happier with well-designed instructions.

Straight stitch plates etc.

I stayed up late last night and installed a collar and band with the option three method - with great success, more on that later.


What I want to share with you now is what I have learned about straight stitch plates and feet.


Here is a picture of my standard plate and foot, and of my straight stitch plate and foot. You don't need to be a genius to see that having the action part of the stitch over top of that open space (wider the zig zag your machine does the wider the hole in the plate and foot - mine does 9 mm.) the more wobbly your stitch is going to be.

The effect on switching to a straight stitch plate and foot on my stitching has been dramatic.


For example when I stitched around my collar my machine marched right along without any hesitation, not a skipped stitch, and no "hump jumper" needed. 


What a relief. The only errors made were in the chair. 

Field work

I know a sewing machine guy who used to service large machines in factories. 


He told me that many thing we see in RTW are hard to replicate at home because we don't have the equipment. High powered straight-stitch machines for example and special attachments. He told me that the machine that puts in a welt-pocket in men's pants takes up a whole room.


This got me thinking about RTW shirt making. I was intrigued by Lisa's observation when she did her great collar making tutorial that the topstitching she saw on the collar bands stopped short of the seam allowance on the curved edge of the band.


I found that too in several shirts. Doing the same would make topstitching that tricky area really a lot easier. So does a straight stitch plate and foot I discovered. The wide hole in the plate of a zig zag machine just creates an area of instability when you are doing this careful stitching. I have had better results with the smaller, single needle hole in my speciality plate. 


There are a few other things I have noticed in my RTW shirts:


1. The collar band buttonhole is not cut open. Looks neater and if you aren't going to wear the shirt buttoned to the neck why not?


2. Buttons and buttonholes are completely missing on the band and collar above the point where you would be buttoning the last button. My Lands End shirts are all like this (too bad though they don't fit and have linoleum tiles used as interfacing). This actually makes for a neater look.


OK off to work.

Choose your poison - three collar methods to choose from

Right now I am working on Hot Patterns' Boxy Blouse.

Yes, I know I announced recently that I don't look good in things without shape, but what can I do? You can see what I am up against here.


Someone asked me recently what the purpose was in sewing so many white shirts, particularly when some may not be hits, as in misses.


Well there are many reasons, prime being because I feel like it, but in a sense they can be viewed as a series of muslins. I mean if I can come out of this with a couple of excellent shirt or blouse patterns and have nailed some techniques through practice, trail and error and more error, well I am ahead.


I have lots of nice fabric that would make nice shirts if I just had a pattern ...


Now not everything I wear will be to work, in fact with my work going to go part-time as in 2 days a week come the spring (that doesn't count prep which will still be done at the dining room table) my life is going to be more home-based. So clothes I will wear everyday are going to be just as much in my mind as those I wear in the classroom.


The Boxy Blouse looked to me as a good casual blouse. It has a dart and if I keep it as short as the style I will avoid the pillow case look of Tom Jones version 1.


Also the only real detail of any effort in it is the collar and I want to concentrate on that.


As far as I can see there are three shirt collar methods out there, if you exclude the hand-sewn down method most patterns suggest. Each method has it's variations but basically each keeps to the same approach.


It seems to me that in deciding what method works for you, you need to come to terms with the kind of sewer you are and where your own personal points of tension are.


The truth is not every sewer likes, or succeeds, with the same approach.


There is no one best method for anything.


So what you have to do is zero in on which tricky area you are best dispositioned to deal with.


Here are the choices:


1. The roll-it-out-of-the-way, all the action is in the curved edge of the band seam a.k.a. Burrito method: this works best with thin shirting fabrics because you want a tiny roll not a sausage roll, and IMO good hand-eye coordination.  Gigi favours this method which speaks for itself. Here is Gigi's version. I have used this method on men's shirts in the past and it worked well.


2. The slot-it-on method, all the action is depends on that front bump where the band meets the front: Used by Pam from Off the Cuff, and beautifully described and detailed here for us by Lisa here. This is the easiest method to conceptualize and depends on real precision sewing. Good one if you have a strong  left side to your brain. I used this method on my first white shirt.


3. The drop-in-the-collar method, a la Debbie and Belinda: in some ways a relative of the Burrito method but you just push the front out of the way for the curve sewing which is just for the short seam of the band curve,rather than making a tight roll or sewing a bit on the neckline seam too as you do in method one.  What distinguishes this approach is that the last thing you do is drop the collar into the band which diverts some of the action there. Since this is a method I haven't tried I am going to try that one with the Boxy Shirt.


Results in later.

Tom Jones with facelift

 O.K. It's a white shirt right?


Actually in my research to find this riveting image I found out that Mr. Jones has insured his chest hair for $7 million. 


To which there are only two questions.


Why not $6 million, why not $8 million? 


Obviously my DH is a bargain.


Which brings me to how crazy sewing makes you, if that isn't already apparent.


Monday night I was walking the dogs on the local snow covered golf course and took a header on about the 14th green. Seems it is covered in plastic, which is not obvious from the top side of the snow.


I spent the evening in the ER, and have a badly sprained ankle, a sideways knee, and, as I blog, I am on a heating pad because today "my back gave out." Something I have heard about since I was a child as in "well there he was and his back just gave right out". I always wondered what exactly that meant and where did the back go when it went.


Anyway, none of this prevented me from staying up late last night trying to get the Tom Jones shirt into something I was comfortable with and in consideration of your comments.


The picture previously posted reminded me of a sheet with a nice neckline, and I know already from 40 years of sewing that shapeless tunics don't do a thing for me. Now why don't I remember what I know when I look at new patterns?


OK.


Well, I cut off 3" making it actually 1" shorter than the original which was designed for someone at least 3" shorter than me anyway, and I took in 4" at the hem and up the sides tapering to the armhole, despite the fact that my actual hips are 2" larger than the pattern I used.


Much, much better.


I then remembered I am sort of very long waisted (which is why the super long tunics don't do I thing for me, and I couldn't wear heels in the first pictures owing to the swollen ankle thing) and that I look better with a shorter top.


I also remembered that my all time favourite skirts of this decade were the ones that I made in the fall from this Vogue pattern because of the nice normal slightly raised real waist ( I sincerely hope that lower waist, belly hanging waistlines do not come back into style in my lifetime).


So I hopped/crawled to the closet and put the Tom Jones shirt on again tucked into one of those skirts and did the bathroom mirror shot-at-midnight.

I couldn't go back to bed until I had resolved this, but I went to sleep happy. This works for me.


I know this behaviour makes perfect sense to you.


A correction: for those of you who may have looked at this last night I, mistakenly, posted a picture of a Tom Jones impersonator at the top of this post. Merci to Nathalie for catching this and sending me this much nicer, and much more accurate TJ photo.

NY Times and white shirts

Thanks to Lisa for putting me in touch with this article on White shirts.


The slide show is here too.


I am all revved up. I mean even more than usual. Since I decided to let my sewing take over my life officially again, that is pretty much what's been happening around here. I feel great.

Live shots of Tom Jones at the Sewing Guild

Last night I went to the local sewing guild meeting, I have rejoined in anticipation of my move to part-time work in the Spring, and had my friend Sheila take these pictures.


I am afraid they make me look like a maniac, and also feel that may be a representative look for me.


It is in interesting blouse but not sure if I know how to wear it. I feel it is really long too. I am 5'9" and added only 2" to the length, but am not sure if it could do with a cut-off. What do you think? How much?


I tried it with the vest which does help to pack it in a little - that's an awful lot of white fabric.


The girls at the Guild commented that some of them thought it looked better without the vest and also that a lighter fabric would have helped - something more drapey like a rayon. As is when I belt it I get sort of a Tutu look.


The issue with a lighter fabric of course is show through, which I didn't like because I knew I would be wearing this with jeans.


All you stylists out there, what do you think my options are? What is your feedback? 


That said I am generally pretty pleased with this a a ruffly shirt, and find the neckline quite pretty and certainly very easy to sew - just strips topstitched down at intervals.

Preview of the next white shirt

I finished Simplicity 2310 over the weekend and am going to wear it to a sewing guild meeting tonight and ask someone to take a picture, since my photographers are otherwise engaged.


It was my attempt to focus just on the collar band and to try something a bit frilly, not my usual style being a tall person.


It turned out a bit more Tom Jones than I expected. However once I adjusted to that and tried it on with about 87 other garments I decided it was too shapeless to wear on its own but perfect under a long cardigan or vest as a layering piece. Some garments are like that, they are meant to be part of a family not solitaire. Once you understand that you can start to use them.


What this really needs now is a black long vest to wear with narrow pants. I can't stand trooping around stores to look for something specific - do much better when I shop randomly - but not sure about a pattern. I will work on that one. I would rather sew for three hours than shop for half an hour.


I am really getting into this and have #3 cut out.


These are the great things about sewing one type of garment, with variations, in one colour:


1. You build on skills. I got my seams figured out to my satisfaction in many variations first blouse. Next I worked on the band collar with this one, next shirt I am doing one method of the collar on a band. I am going to try several methods and see which one works best for these hands. Everyone's hands are different and even techniques are personal. I understand that.


2. You save a certain amount of energy that you then have as extra to go into the project by repeating yourself. You already have the machine threaded, the interfacing ready and many of the techniques are familiar. That practice makes perfect thing is really true.


3. It is easy to buy fabric and you get to appreciate differences, focus on what each slightly different fabric has to offer.


4. So you don't get bored, in this case making ten versions of the same thing, you reach out of your usual zone, like I did with this shirt and try new details. It expands your repertoire instead of limiting it, which was unexpected.


About white shirts specifically:


1. Because the fabric lets the interior construction be known (I took this shot this morning in my sewing room backlit so you would see what I mean) you really have to make the inside look as good as the outside. A serger hasn't gone near these units and every seam is finished and neat, every edge turned under and stitched.  I really could wear these inside out (and knowing me one morning I probably will) and still look OK.


2. You have to take a bit of care. It is perfectly possible to acquire a nipple sized coffee stain over the bust, even though you don't remember drinking coffee while you sewed. And if you are not incredibly tidy about cleaning your machine it is completely possible to make a beautiful flat felled seam with a bit of black lint from the last project trapped in it.


This is actually getting pretty interesting.

Collar stays

Even here at Santa's workshop our minds wander to other topics.


Like the shirts we are going to be making in the New Year with this load of white fabric brought across the Canadian border by various family members in various suitcases.


The more I think about it the more I am interested in the differences between a shirt made for a man and a shirt sewn by a woman for herself.


I made a shirt in the spring for my sartorial son in DC. He said all the right things but told me that the next one should have collar stays.


OK, why do you think a man's dress shirt has collar stays? To keep the points crisp, right? To add more to the body of the interfacing?


Wrong.

It seems that the point of the stay is to hold the collar up and close to your neck when you aren't wearing a tie (which I don't). Interesting isn't it?


Now I think of it your average tailored shirt on me can look sort of sloppy as in Exhibit Unstiffed from this website 


Food for thought isn't it? Santa never stops thinking.

On shirts, Cary Grant and airports

I have been away for a week now, visiting my son in DC, visiting my husband who is working in Tennessee, and doing my part to help out the American retail economy. The DH will be home for a week at Christmas and then going back. We don't know for how long and I have been taking advantage of his current US address to have things shipped to him, some of which I brought back this trip, some he'll be bringing back later.


It was a bit of a shock, a nice surprise but still a shock, to walk into his suite  and see it filled, and I mean filled, with fabric boxes. Fabric.com has free shipping you know for orders over $35. Since that is about what I would pay for duty I would have been a fool not to have spent my fall clicking that "add to basket" button.


In addition I have been on the Joann's website most mornings and texting him pattern numbers to pick up for me when there are sales. The guy's a sport.


Anyway.


It appears I now have a collection of every shirt pattern that has yet to be discontinued and about 50 yards of white fabric of various kinds, textures, weaves, and potential applicabilities.


It's not often I amaze even myself but I managed it this time. It is safe to say I am set up to make more shirts, once I get this Santa's Workshop thing wound down. That in itself deserves a post.


Back to my travels. There isn't a lot to do waiting for planes, except knit ( I finished second son's hopefully NYC style socks for very nice girlfriend in Newark airport between flights - only person who was having a good time there for sure) and look at the magazines.


Well, I picked up the GQ Style Manual because it had a cover line about shirts and boy is it ever good. I think any sewist would get a charge out of this one. So much detail about the tiny variations of men's clothing. So much talk about fit and quality, so many good ideas, I have to tell you, if you are shopping for an young man on the list.


Who knew that silver tie clips were back? That you never button those little buttons on the collar of an Oxford shirt? That the best way to iron a shirt is with the ironing board backwards? Some of it is obvious if you sew, or are anyone's spouse or mother, a lot of it was new and food for thought.


There are two things about this magazine that are particularly great. 


The first are the shots of men like that one pictured below who really knew how to bring out the best in a shirt.


The second is the shirt section which has this sidebar from Style Guy Glenn O'Brien on why "that white shirt is always right," p. 29:


I have a veritable Pantone book of colored shirts, but it wouldn't bother me to give them all up for the Don Draper white shirt that virtually every businessman wore daily until the late '60s. Nothing looks dresser or richer than a crisp, immaculate, high-thread-count, perfectly fit white shirt. Nothing sets off a tan better. Or a dark suit. You can always supply color with a tie of cuff links, but that white makes you look brilliant. And white won't clash with anything else you put on. My grandmother insisted that a gentleman wears white shirts at night (if he has time to change), and she has a point. My favorite is a placket-front French-cuff shirt from Charvet. It works with a tie, but you take away the tie and you have a perfectly smooth and clean look. It also doubles nicely with a tux and eliminates the need for studs.


The only thing I might disagree with is the last few words. 


Case in point.

A great collar tutorial

Fellow sewer Lisa has put together a great Flicker tutorial on making a collar with a stand.


As she doesn't blog but is sewing along with us I thought I would post the link here 


Lisa this is so helpful, thank you so much for going to the trouble to do this.

What happened to the weekend

First here is a shot of my first shirt finished except for the buttonholes. Hope to get those and a picture on me taken this week. I really love the shape and find the sleeves nice but not too fussy.




There was a delay in production with the new Friday that my almost 84 year old father-in-law had a heart attack and was in a hospital in a town about an hour away. He is doing fine, amazingly in fact.


He spent last week in the woods by himself, got a deer, butchered it, distributed all the meat to “old people” picked and bottled 25 pounds of apples for pies and then went to bed and had a heart attack. 


He wants to be out of the hospital by next weekend to install a sump pump and says he has to rebuild the landing on the back door of his house (the one he built last year) because as they were wheeling him out he noticed that it was not well-designed for emergency workers and stretchers – says it should be an easy job.


He is in ICU and when I first went in to see him he was chatting away, calling all the nurses Florence Nightingale and telling them he was getting the best care in the world but it was time he went home because he really doesn't have the time to "take a week off."


It actually was a bit of a lift to sit and talk with him. We can't do a thing with him of course, but maybe that's not a bad thing.

Shirt thoughts

Thank you to all of you who left sympathetic comments about my collar stand.


The interesting thing about this focus on white shirts only is that I am thinking a little deeper about the details rather than going on to the next thing like I usually do.


I have decided to do a collar band only shirt next and to try out Gigi's method . It seems to me that her system focuses on my area of difficulty and it would be interesting to see if that helps.


I am also considering the issue of interfacing, I used a sew-in woven, narrower seam allowances (I trimmed them down but obviously working with a narrower seam allowance to start with might make things easier to manipulate) and how much I need to topstitch.


I have had a good look at the wide presser foot on my Pfaff 7570 and the wide opening in it that is used to accommodate the 9 mm. zig zag. Of course the kind of control I need around that tiny curve at the front of the band is hard to achieve with this much open space in the throat plate, I suspect a straight stitch plate and a straight stitch foot, both of which would increase the proportion of metal holding down the fabric, would help. I should probably get one each of those. In the meantime I might try my grandmother's Featherweight which has a lovely straight stitch.


We're not resting until we get this collar issue dealt with, or at least I'm not.

Not my best work, but who said I was perfect?

I am very pleased with the progress of my first shirt blouse after a husband-going-away-sick-dog-70-papers -to-mark few weeks. 


The fit is perfect. My square shoulder alteration combined with the D cup sizing built into the pattern seem to be a combination that works for me without much alteration intelligence on my part. This is a combination I will look for in future.


I was worried, and rightly so, about the collar on a stand. I have made these before with mixed results and this time I followed Pam's highly recommended method . 


Check Pam's instructions out if you want to see a skilled professional doing a slick treatment that turns out perfectly.


If you want to see how imperfect me executed this take a look here:

This is actually my worst side of the collar but it makes my point.


This method has you sew the collar to the band, stitch the under side of the band to the shirt, and topstitch the band down. 


It should work. 


You can see however that I had the problems I expected which were about that pile up of fabric layers at the spot where the front of the shirt and the collar band meet. I figure there are about six layers happening here in about a 1/4" space.


This is the kind of sewing challenges that you can pull off if   you have a lucky day, but you can't call on lucky days to happen just because you want them to,


What you see here all looked fine at the pressing, getting ready to sew stage, but once that needle and presser foot started happening things moved around. I also tried very hard to get a nice edge stitch going on around the curve and that too is pretty iffy.


Which brings me to a large and universal question. Why do some methods work for so well for some sewers and not for others?


I have run into this before. Approaches that some sewers swear by that I can't get to work for me. Serging on clear elastic would be in the category for me, for instance. When I try that the stuff gets sliced to nothing and then sprongs around the room.


So this approach to attaching the collar, where basically the collar/band is just supposed to slip on, makes sense but requires some careful work in small spaces.


I usually don't do to well in confined spaces.


So next shirt up I am going to try another approach. And after that probably another one. One of my goals with this is to get this whole collar thing to a point that I can rely on myself to do this so it turns out, without a lot of angst.


It is a question of finding a way to do this that is compatible with how I work as a sewer. 


Right now I suspect the method that has you attach the band first and then slip in the collar has potential. This is the burrito system David Coffin uses and I have in my book Sewing Magic which he worked from too. Might do that next, we will see.


In the meantime I am going to finish this shirt and treat it as what it was, a learning experience. Chances are the general public is not going to see this collar glitch quite the way I do.


We all know this blog is not one of those that you go to for ohs and ahs. I love those blogs and you know which ones - they give me something to aim for, but it does record the struggles of someone who loves to sew and is just trying to get better.


I am reminded too about an older woman who inspected something I had made, with great effort, in one sewing class.


"Don't worry dear," she said, patting my arm. "Only God is perfect."


Well who can argue with that one?