The dirty side of white shirts

I have just posted, finally, full shots of my first white shirt. I have another one half done down in the sewing room. It is quite different and I am looking forward to sharing that one with you soon.


I wore my first shirt to my first class of the semester this week and was very happy and comfortable in it.


However getting dressed for that class I encountered a major issue with 100% cotton white shirts.


Ironing.


Getting this shirt ready, it had been washed after one wearing over the holidays, took a lot of time. Ironing those puffy sleeves was no joke. Made me wonder if I need one of those little Martha Pullen round knob iron things.


Suddenly I was old school.


Should  I be using starch? I don't like the spray stuff, which I tried, too many inhaled chemicals I decided. My steam iron wasn't quite enough.


Made me think of the old Coke bottle with the shaker on top that my mother used to use to dampen ironing, and even of the semi-damp tablecloths she used to keep in the chest freezer in the basement until she could get around to ironing them.


How does a modern woman starch/iron a bunch of white shirts so they are really sharp, without spending 40 minutes each doing it?


Now I think I am pretty good at the ironing board as a sewer, but "the ironing" doesn't play the large role in my life that it played in my mother's or grandmother's.


My GQ style Guide advised men to do their own shirts, so they would last longer, to iron them wet from the washing machine and to use the ironing board backwards with the square end in the shoulders.


I am beginning to see why men send their shirts out, although that isn't something I am about to do with mine. 


If I press while I sew why wouldn't I iron after I have sewn?


Any great ironing thoughts and insights out there?

Review of the first white shirt, finally

Here is my first shirt, McCalls 6035 views of all sides.

Here are my general thoughts on this first shirt, and on some of the issues with white shirts in general.

First of all I am pleased with the upper body fit. The multi-sized pattern with the different bust sizes worked very well for me, I used a D. Such a great short cut to compared to the dreaded FBA..

However I added to the waist and hips exactly the difference between my larger waist and hips than the pattern and the result is far too flared at the hips for me, you can see this at the front, which I have pulled out a bit for this picture. Note to self - baste and fit. I don't have curve to my hips so having a shape in the garment that isn't in the body doesn't make sense.

I really liked the sleeves in this pattern, they added some style to an otherwise standard shirt and because the sleeves are 3/4 the round band at the bottom, rather than a true cuff, worked fine - it was loose enough to be comfortable, but small enough to take the gathering.

I also used a 100% cotton broadcloth which was lovely to work with and about heavy enough to cover. I don't like a shirt fabric in white that is so thin folks can count your bra hooks or see the exact design of the lace on your bra.

I was glad I finished the seams carefully, with my French seam faux flat felled - with a white fabric you really need to keep the seams neat or they will show messy from the right side.

I wish the collar points were a bit stiffer since I wear this open, but I was happy with the general and very comfortable stiffness of the collar in general. The issue of collar stays bears further investigation.

All in all I am very happy with this shirt and have realized that it goes with every bottom in my wardrobe. How cool is that?

What caught my eye

Lots happening. This weekend will be posting on-me shots of the first White Shirt with review and the second one in-progress.


I like to start the new year with new patterns, and I have been waiting and waiting for them. I don't know about you, but spring and summer are my prime dress wearing seasons and I have been anxious for more dresses to think about.


McCall's site went up this morning, and here are a few patterns that caught my eye. I may not necessarily be making these, but they are under serious consideration.

Now this one has figure balancing, make-you-look-like-you- have-a-waist written all over it, but are they insane to say that those inserts make this an "Easy pattern"? I mean this one should come with a seam ripper in the envelope. I find the two colour contrast might get a bit old unless the colours were black and white or unexpected, but the idea of doing a colour block with a print is very interesting. Wish this came in multi-bust size though. This one might be tricky to do the FBA.

OK this is a little nutso but two prints (I have never done this and have been thinking about it) as in the black and red version, might be sort of cool. Really this is just an interesting housedress-go-to-the-grocery-store dress and I wear a lot of those. This pattern will probably see production.

 

Yes, I know when we all saw these come back we said "Yuck, been there done that" but like so many new styles once your eyes get re-used to it you see potential. Obviously comfortable and casual (a big seller around here). Not sure about the pockets on the legs. I actually had a brief moment where I thought "gee those would be handy for carrying around the bags when I take the boys for a walk, or for stowing little things I extract from my granddaughter's mouth" but really who wants to walk around with bags of poop or small sharp objects on their pants legs? However I think I will probably try this pants pattern in the privacy of my sewing room to see if I am completely delusional or not.

Off to the first classes of the new term. I am excited.

Later.

Clothes to love

Many of you may be familiar with this link, but if not I am posting it here. Harper's has a Fabulous at Any Age archive with beautiful clothes right up to what they call the 70+ demographic.


It's in the drop down menu under Fashion and Shopping.


Enjoy.

Happy New Year

I had a great time last night and intend to do everything I can to enjoy 2011 as much as I can.


My husband and I did a little babysitting, and rather than going out later to parties he made a wonderful supper, lobster and a fruit plate. He then lit firecrackers on the front lawn, enjoyed by the little boys down the street, and afterwards we slow danced in the kitchen in our pajamas.


I figured that was just about a perfect evening.


Now this morning I am starting in implementing my New Year's resolution. Here it is:


Sew more. A lot more.


Enough with fitting sewing in around all my other duties. I am putting it back on first. See enjoy 2011 as much as I can above.


This is what that is looking like:


1. Major organization of the sewing room, started this morning in the same outfit I wore dancing last night. I will be posting some pictures of this. Right now it involves putting the fabric I actually think I will be sewing, like all my white shirt fabrics, out on shelves and putting what I am calling "all that weird shit" into boxes for the moments when that is exactly what I need.


2. Learning to use the very nice camera that my husband gave me for Christmas after having reviewed my blog. So I can take better pictures of what I sew.


3. I upgraded my PMB software to version 5 yesterday. I had fabulous success with a well-fitted sheath a few years ago with version 3 but got bogged down getting the pants to work, probably user error more than anything. Some women in the local sewing guild say the new version is easier and more effective. It's not so much that I have fitting issues as it is that I get frustrated sometimes trying to find a pattern in a style I see in the collections or magazines. For instance I really want a slimmer pant right now, not a trouser and not a skinny jeans. I think a couple of us locally are going to be working on getting proficient on the software.


4. I'm going to buy more fabric in 2011. Yes, I love fabric and living in this fabric purchasing wasteland I just need and want more on hand. See enjoy myself above.


5. Get those shirts going again now the Christmas production cycle is over. Dying to get this started.


Now I have a major question for you. Any great ideas for a good shirt collar interfacing? I prefer a sewn-in and don't want one of those cardboardy kinds you find in so many men's shirts.


What works for you?

3:40 a.m.

Well the first thing you should do is go over to Carolyn's blog and read her thoughts on accepting the changes of your life.


It is funny but I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep tonight. So I sat down with a snack and started to read and there were her words - just saying the things that had woken me up in the night.


Thank you for that Carolyn.


I have also been thinking how important it was to let relationships change. 


This is really hard to do, and in fact I think it has been a theme of my life to try to keep that from happening. It is particularly hard when the relationship, from your own point of view, has been just about perfect.


I have probably spent too much time in the last couple of years trying to hold on to times in my life that were very happy but leaving my life. I think for example of that terrific feeling I had when I put three kids to bed and knew they were completely content with their lives and their home and I could head off to the sewing room for some time by myself with the same kind of peace in my heart. A lot of times I just wanted that back.


But lately I have been accepting that relationships just change and you have to let them. This takes some effort when the person who has initiated that change is not you. It has taken me some time to come to terms with my middle son leaving not just home but this country too, and that the kid who talked my ear off and shared everything is going to be a visitor, not at home, where I am anymore.


But the funny thing is that the more I have accepted the changes in our relationship the more it feels like it did between the two of us again.


I have also just realized that there is change too in the relationship with my husband. In our partnership I have also been the one who did the talking, had the schemes, and asked for support. My husband has been the anchor man - the one who fixed things for everyone and provided the kind of steady backup that we all needed.


With him off to work in the US this year all that has changed. Now he is the one with the stories, and the buck has been stopping with me for all the things that have to happen to make a household work.  In some ways it is making me feel like a single mother again and that's not a feeling that makes me particularly happy.


But I recognize that this situation is temporary, but more significantly, that it is just his turn to be the one with the adventures for a bit and he really deserves this, after all he has done for everyone else for so long. So it's my turn to do some adjusting, to be the anchor man.


I suspect, no I know, that as I get older that life is not going to get more settled as much as require me to experience many changes, including in my relationships, even the ones that were just the way I wanted them.


As this unfolds I have to say that I am just so glad I have my sewing. That is one relationship that is constant for me and has been my whole life and because of that probably makes all the other transitions just that much easier.

It was a merry Christmas

Here is a requisite picture of myself and my granddaughter at Christmas. We had a blow-out 14 people dinner at my daughter's with lots of food, little kids running around, and general chaos.


My daughter kept saying, "Is this too wild?" and of course it wasn't and can't be. My husband did the major cooking, turkey, stuffing, gravy and all the pies and cooked for us again yesterday. Here he is in the middle of carving, just before he hit the couch:

I know that there are a lot of folks who don't like this time of year, but I love it.


First of all Christmas allows me to go all out on family doting which I need to do, so I really enjoy myself. Things change of course. Operations moved from my place to my daughter's this year, and that felt right. I am very happy to be doing back up and glad I have the time to do it.


Secondly New Year's really is a time when I review my life and see what I want to get done and if I am still steered in the right direction.


I have been thinking some preliminary thoughts on that one over the last day or so.


I think for many of us in this much busier world the key is becoming as much what we are not going to do in the new year as what we are going to be doing. 


It seems to me that this is not a time for me so much for self-improvement as self-focus.


One thing that I have been thinking about a lot is how important my sewing life is to me. What that looks like as I move forward bears some consideration and I am going to have to decide what I am going to be letting go of to move what matters more into focus.