mens shirt Archives - Page 2 of 6

Gemini

19/06/2013 11:09 am \ 40 Comments \ Carolyn

Gemini, the twins.
Of course my boys are not twins obviously, they are separated by several years and have one sister in between them too. But they are both Geminis! That picture cracks me up btw… so brotherly… 😀

So, of course the other shirt was for Tim, our eldest son! He had a birthday recently too 🙂
The fabric for his shirt is the same that I used for Sam’s but in a different colourway; a medium weight striped cotton drill in black and cream stripes from Spotlight. The cream background is a touch deeper in colour than the slightly lighter ivory colour that is on Sam’s navy blue and ivory shirt.
I went with an on-grain pocket this time, just for one different visual detail between the two shirts.
The other details are all almost identical: epaulettes, a smaller, slightly rounded collar,

sleeve plackets cut on the bias. The same buttons.

The yoke cut in two halves on the bias, with the yoke facing cut as one piece for stability reasons. Close up, you might notice that on Tim’s shirt the black “arrow” is centred on a black stripe, whereas with Sam’s the negative space white arrow was centred on the negative space white stripe. Little details like that tickle my fancy 🙂

Sam’s

Flat-felled armscye seam allowanc e as described here; flat-felled sleeve and side seams with a split hem, as detailed in the previous post.

Details:
Shirt; Burda 7767 modified, black and white striped cotton, my review of this pattern here

So, two more shirts. Phew. I feel like I could just about make these in my sleep now! but two in a row is just about my limit; toward the end of the second one I am getting a little shirted out and need to cleanse my palate by making something completely different before thinking about any more shirts. Variety (in projects) is the spice of life, non?
Fortunately, my next, er make that, current project is super frivolous and super fun and I am having a ball with it. Very very very silly and self-indulgent. I’m having so much fun with it, that I have already roared roughly halfway through and I only bought the fabric on Saturday! And I don’t even need it for several more weeks!! I absolutely must slow down. But eeeee! It’s such a crazy and ridiculous thing, and I cannot wait to wear it and show it!

And I’m totally embarrassed that I mixed up Gemini and Cancer… when I did Cancer last month, honestly I didn’t even realise I had got it wrong until yesterday when I was browsing through birthday cards in the newsagent. I think I got confused because my boys both have birthdays in June and are Gemini, and I just thought to myself, well that is going to work out nicely and then made a mental leap that ok then May must be Cancer and didn’t twig that Cancer came after. You can tell I’m not too crash hot on horoscopes.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7767, mens shirt, Sam, Tim

Navy stripes

13/06/2013 1:20 pm \ 53 Comments \ Carolyn

It was Sam’s birthday a few days back and I made a shirt for him.

The fabric is from Spotlight, a medium-weight cotton twill in a heavy cream colour with navy blue stripes. Ahem, stripes again, I know; but hey. It’s so hard to find different and nice mens’ shirting fabric. Seriously hard. Fortunately, Sam loves stripes, so our quest to stockpile the world’s largest, handmade, striped men’s shirt collection is going great guns, thanks.

Buttons; a light bone colour, also from Spotlight. Y’know, Spotlight gets a lot of flack for the hit and miss nature of their stuff. And then every now and again, just when you’re about to throw up your hands in despair, you find some gems. So I’m eating my words right now. These buttons, and this fabric? Awesome-sauce!
So, do I have any new revelations about tailoring a man’s shirt? No. Am I being mind-numbingly repetitive. Um, probably! I used the same ol’ pattern too. I reeeeeeally should get some new patterns, honestly. And no; it wasn’t really a huge birthday surprise, since for one, he did actually request it. But I still wrapped it up so he could unwrap it on the day!
It’s made to his fit preference; loose and boxy enough to wear open over Tshirts and hoodies, if he so desires, which he frequently does.
Features… Epaulettes.

There are one or two bias details, for some visual interest. Pocket on the bias, with a pen compartment. Sleeve plackets cut on the bias, and I loooove how this looks! Plus, it was heaps easier having no stripe matching to worry about here 😉

Straight hem, with split side seams.
ETA: at right, showing the inside view where the flat-felled seam allowance meets the split side seam… (I will do a small tute on how I do my take on this, if anyone is interested?)

The collar is cut with much smaller, less pointy wings than the pattern piece.

I’ve been accustomed lately to flat-felling the armscye seam allowances, and French-seaming the sleeve and side seams. Then I read an opinion somewhere that French seams were “feminine” and not suitable for a men’s shirt at all… that flat-felled seaming throughout is the only acceptable finish to a man’s shirt. O rly?? Well, that burst my bubble.
So I felt sufficiently shamed into going with flat felled seams throughout. Doing this up inside the sleeves of a shirt is not exactly easy. I got a pretty nice finish, but it was fiddly business.

The yoke.
~~Drastic fabric shortages~~ an inspired creative decision dictated that I cut it as two halves on the bias. The yoke facing is a regular, on-grain, single piece of fabric for stability, cut from plain white cotton.

Shirt; Burda 7767 modified, navy and cream striped cotton twill. My review of this pattern is here, and my previous Burda 7767 makes are here and here.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7767, mens shirt, Sam

White Christmas; Craig’s Christmas shirt

27/12/2012 11:00 pm \ 21 Comments \ Carolyn

I made a shirt for Craig for Christmas too; and used er, hehehe; Burda 7767 again! I bought some very nice white cotton broadcloth from Spotlight; and the buttons are also from Spotlight.
Actually, this shirt is a response to a rarity; a request. Rumblings and murmurings about a nice, smart-casual, short-sleeved white shirt have been increasing in frequency and volume for a few weeks, at least.
I tuned in. I took action.
Most satisfyingly, he was very very pleased when he opened up his pressie on Christmas morning! and he put it on straight away. Actually, all my boys put their new shirts on straight away. Cassie put on her new outfit too (hers to appear here tomorrow!! 🙂 ) Most gratifying. I have to confess; Christmas lunch I looked around, and Dad was wearing this shirt, my two boys and my husband wearing their shirts, and my daughter, as well as (duh) myself; was wearing an outfit made by me. . My heart just … well, swelled. Real warm fuzzy moment (sigh)
This is a fairly simple version of the pattern. Simple was just about all I could cope with by this time, since as you can imagine I was fast approaching men’s-shirt saturation point …. And after the hard and heavy duty this pattern has endured over the past few months I think it deserves a nice little rest now 🙂 Time to go bye-byes, good and faithful well-thumbed pattern, wishing you sweet pattern-y dreams and I’ll see you in… oh, sometime in the future, I’m sure …. if when I can muster a skerrick of enthusiasm.
and (whispers) you can be sure I will be leaping with joy upon some new patterns in the New Year. Yup. NEW. Patterns! Whoo hooooo!!!
This latest version of Burda 7767 has short sleeves, and two very simple squared patch breast pockets, the left one has been partitioned to have a pen compartment.
For the first time I gave the shirt a club collar by curving the collar points off.

The armscye seam allowances are flat felled; utilising a gathering stitch along the curved sleeve cap to achieve this neatly. The side and sleeve seams are flat-felled also.

I usually like to add a traditionally curved lower hem to my mens’ shirts; but this time I went with a split side seam. It is hard to see with the white-on-white stitching; but I stitched horizontally along the top of the split with a tight, closely spaced bar of zip-zag stitching.

Going by the worn worn state of Craig’s current white short-sleeved shirt collection; I am completely confident this one will be getting tonnnnnes of wear!

Details:
Burda 7767 modified, white cotton, my review of this pattern here

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7767, Craig, mens shirt

Stripey Sam; Sam’s Christmas shirt

26/12/2012 11:00 pm \ 30 Comments \ Carolyn

Next up; Sam! and I made a shirt for his Christmas pressie too. Ohhhh yes, I have been a very very busy bee lately!
I used Burda 7767, and blue and white striped fabric from the Fabric Store, Melbourne… bought during our trip there in September. I think it is a cotton rayon mix, very crisp, crackly and crinkly, and it has silver lurex threads running randomly through as well. I bought the white and silver buttons from Fabulous Fabrics. This version has long sleeves, which can be rolled up and held in place by an arrowhead tab that buttons onto the sleeve, and a single pocket.
I received some complimentary comments about the stripe matching of the pocket on Craig’s birthday shirt, and thank you 🙂 but the truth is that stripe matching a patch pocket is NOTHING compared to the stripe matching in this shirt.
Particularly in the case of the two sleeve cuff plackets. I performed multiple repeats of teeny tiny precision measurements… checking and re-checking where the stripes were going to fall on the plackets in relation to the sleeve. Anyone who has ever sewn a tailored detail like a sleeve cuff placket will know the precision required to get these looking nice and even and perfect … and to get the stripes matching exactly like this as well? (self high-five) Truly I consider this one of the highest sewing achievements of my year!

Sleeve tabs…

Of course the stripes on the pocket match up to those on the shirt too….

The armscye seams allowances are flat-felled on the inside using a gathering stitch on the sleeve cap to achieve this neatly on a curved seam; and the sleeve and side seams are French seams.

Shirt; Burda 7767 modified, my review of this pattern here; blue and white striped cotton mix with a silver lurex stripe

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7767, mens shirt, Sam

Chocolate with a little zing; Tim’s Christmas shirt

25/12/2012 11:00 pm \ 23 Comments \ Carolyn

I made a shirt for our eldest son for a Christmas pressie…
using Burda 7767 (surprise!!) and some lovely deeply sludgy, purply-chocolate linen bought from the Fabric Store in Melbourne during our September visit there, and I found the perfect turquoise buttons and matching thread in KnitWit.
Tim is quite a snappy dresser and cares about his wardrobe, he likes clothes that have that distinctive modern-hipster look; classic lines but with odd details and a slightly grungy edge. This pattern does have very classic lines, and I thought the unexpected neon jolt of the turquoise buttons and matching thread I used for topstitching throughout adds the edge that the shirt needs to steer it firmly away from boring (from a young man’s point of view) “classic” territory and shimmy it into the “hipster” sphere.
To really bring the vivid turquoise visually into the spotlight; I added buttons galore and OD’d on the topstitching, going for double top-stitching throughout, wherever a button or topstitching could be put, there it went!
I added two bellows breast pockets. The pockets have angled lower corners and the pocket flaps have contrasting curved lower edges, for a bit of visual non-matchingness… something quirky, therefore hipster.

The sleeves have a separate folded-up cuff with double buttonholes and buttons for decoration.

The armscye seams are flat felled on the inside using my tutorial for flat-felling a curved seam here to achieve this neatly, and the side seams are French seams. The lower edge is curved and finished with a narrow hem.

By the way; this shirt is a true button-down shirt.

This other shirt that I made for Dad is NOT an button-down shirt… see the difference?

A button-down shirt is of course one in which the collar buttons down onto the body of the shirt…. NOT a shirt which simply buttons to put on and take off the shirt, for heaven’s sake. A coupla months ago Club BMV sent around an email advertising a course for sewing a tailored shirt, which is all well and good and probably an excellent course… however the blurb waxing lyrical about the “classic button-down shirt” was accompanied by a photo of a shirt that was clearly not a button-down shirt. I’m sure I’m not the only one who was pained to the core at the sight of it. I’m very glad to see they’ve rectified their error now though.

Details:
Shirt; Burda 7767 modified, my review of this pattern here, made of purply-chocolate linen

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7767, mens shirt, Tim

Looking sharp! Craig’s birthday shirt

22/12/2012 2:37 am \ 61 Comments \ Carolyn

It is my husband’s birthday, and I have made a shirt for him!

I used ~~my favourite~~ my only! men’s shirt pattern Burda 7767, adjusted for a perfect custom fit; and a gorgeously high quality, striped shirting cotton from Tessuti’s in Melbourne, bought in high cloak-and-dagger secrecy in a moment while Craig’s back was turned during our trip there in September; mwahahaha!!!! Cannot believe I managed to pull it off actually, a hidden-but-in-full-view purchase; my gosh, but I’m one devious little wife-y.
Cool as a cucumber, my friends… Coooool. As. A. Cucumber. 😉
For the white collar, collar stand, button bands, cuffs and plackets and the arrow-shaped cap on the single pocket; I used a very nice white cotton that I bought for my own use from Fabulous Fabrics. It hurt like mad to have to cut into “my” cotton. It really did. Honestly, I searched and searched for white fabric that was a reasonable textural match for the striped fabric but couldn’t find anything by the time I wanted to start on Craig’s shirt. Can you believe white shirting cotton would be such a rare beast??? well, it is. Trust me. I’ve scoured high and low, and it is currently non-existent…

Thus explaining and self-justifying why I pounce upon, buy up big, and hoard high quality white cotton whenever and wherever I see it…. and this is one of my treasures (hoarsely croaking) ” …. My precious….”
I think the shirt really needed the white contrast bits; in fact I think they make it. I really wanted this shirt to be a super high quality business shirt, like the sort he could wear in important professional situations, and look mighty spiffy at the same time. NOT one that would provoke any “oh, and did your wife make your shirt for you then, hmmm?” comments… 🙂

And I have to admit I am pretty chuffed with it. Actually I am quite thrilled with how this looks; the fabric, the quality and the finish. I think this is the best quality shirt I have made so far.
The armscye seams are flat felled inside, and I used my own tutorial for flat felling a curved seam to achieve this neatly. The side and sleeve seams are French seams. I bought the little black matte buttons from Fabulous Fabrics also.

for those like me who like checking out the insides…

Details:
Shirt; Burda 7767, striped shirting cotton, with white cotton detailing

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7767, Craig, mens shirt

Cement worker

21/11/2012 11:00 pm \ 41 Comments \ Carolyn

I made a shirt for Dad’s birthday 🙂

I used Burda 7767 custom-fit to his size that I fine-tuned with last year’s shirt, and a fine-grade linen from Spotlight in a shade called “cement”. Very appropriate for a man like my Dad who is the handiest handyman you could ever hope to find! Srsly. He is. Cementing would be an absolute doddle to Dad, I’m sure 🙂
Last year’s birthday shirt was a sort of “nice” short-sleeved shirt to wear out to smartish events, and this new one is more casual, more suitable to Dad’s usual daytime activities; like working in the shed building stuff like The Chicken-Plucker (don’t ask) and his own lathe, tinkering with the ute and trekking out through the bush to tend to his hives and chop wood. And fire-fighting, although I kinda hope not!
Being linen it will be a good cool shirt to wear all summer, and this one has long sleeves to protect Dad’s arms from the sun. He can roll them up if he desires without fear of embarrassment caused by tatty interior finishes: since the side and sleeve seams are French seams, and the armscye seams are flat felled seams. I used my own tutorial for flat-felling a curved seam to achieve this neatly.

The pockets are bellowed and pointed at the nadir, and button closed with arrowhead flaps. The buttons are from Fabulous Fabrics. The lower hemline is curved, and as always I sewed a spare button inside to the side seam.

After I had finished sewing it; it was all nicely pressed, with the creases ironed into non-existence and all perfectly smooth and neat, like a newly sewn garment always is. I looked at it askance. It looked so … pristine. A bit immaculate. It didn’t look like a “Dad” sort of a shirt at all. My Dad is very much a low-maintenance sort of a man. So I gave it a second wash, a good shake-out and hung it out on the line to dry in the sun. It came up with a very satisfyingly lived-in look; comfy, rumpled and crumpled. I did not allow the iron anywhere near it. Now it looks very “Dad”.

A little tip; when you trim off the seam allowances and points off of the interfaced pieces of collars and cuff and the like before turning out, it can be handy to keep the larger trimmings. They can be cut down into small squares, which since they are already pre-interfaced are useful for stabilising buttons sewn in areas which have no facing, such as the cuff split button…

and yes, this was the secret thing I have made recently…. I used a small strip of the leftover linen for the waistband on my lace skirt.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Burda 7767, Dad, mens shirt, tip

Craig’s shirt

30/12/2011 6:31 am \ 20 Comments \ Carolyn

The penultimate shirt, for now… (and I am definitely thinking of something different to make for my boys next year!)
This particular shirt, another Burda 7767, was made using shot cotton in True Cobalt, and is a Christmas present for my husband. I had just made for him a special (imo) new shirt for his birthday recently, but I ran up this other new one as well since I didn’t want him to feel left out when the others were all opening their gifts of handmade clothing on Christmas morning. However. This is the sixth mens shirt I’ve made in the past six weeks, and you might imagine I was becoming just a tad shirted-out by the time I came around to this one…? (if so, you imagined correctly) It was a struggle for me to get enthusiastic about finishing this last one to the standards (ahem) I’ve set myself and that my menfolk have become accustomed to… 🙂
In fact it only had the very last little touches put to it just last night 😀
The warp of this fabric is a deep periwinkle and the weft is only a barely lighter blue, leading to an extremely subtle “shot” effect unfortunately. Almost too indistinct… in fact to be blunt I was quite disappointed with this fabric when it arrived. I’m used to the Rowan shot cottons really wowing me with their iridescence, but the colour of this one seemed pretty flat to me when I received it. The perils of internet shopping.

So, the fabric being very plain, the shirt really needed some interesting bits and bobs to lift it above the overly mundane. Even though Craig does like his shirts plain-ish I still thought it needed a little bit of something…

There are added arrowhead shoulder tabs and cute little miniature arrowhead sleeve tabs.
It also has weirdly funky diagonal pockets. Hmmm. They seemed like a good idea at the time. I don’t think he ever uses them much, anyway.

So! …as mentioned above; this is my 6th shirt in as many weeks… but I have only posted five! Has all this crazy shirt-making made me see a double shirt somewhere, where there is but one? Well, no. I can still count…. so here’s the story; I had practically finished another shirt originally intended for one of the boys’ Christmas presents before I decided the fabric was just not right for any of them and put it aside, uncertain what to do with it. And then inspiration struck and now that shirt is in the process of being adapted into something, just a little bit different, and for me… results to appear here sometime soon.
Watch this space…
Later dudes!! (signing off feeling pretty lighthearted since I have finally finished with The Shirts)