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?