ethan's shirt

i've got a couple of shirts to make.  they're all slightly different, but this shirt (for ethan) is kind of the standard shirt with all the pockets, flaps, cuffs,  and stuff so i thought i'd show how to do this one first.  as with the jeans post i'm not going into super detail, just basically skimming over how to make a shirt.

i got the pattern by actually ordering a "western" shirt pattern from simplicity.  of course, because i'm much smaller than most common clothes sizes i had to take the pattern in a lot (even from its smallest size), but eventually i got it right.  i traced the onion-skin pattern onto poster board which makes them less fragile and easier to handle.   i still keep the directions close at hand and refer to them a lot.  thank god ethan and i wear the same size shirt--that way i don't have to switch between 2 sizes all the time!

with each shirt i make i like to try something new and a bit more challenging.  that way each shirt i make gets a little nicer and i learn a little more about the construction process (and how to sew better).  i hate iron-on fusable backing, so for this one i'm just basting cheap cotton broadcloth onto the backs of the pieces that call for interfacing.

the first thing to do are the pockets.  on about the third shirt i made--and with enough teasing from the guys at the bike shop about how the patterns on the pockets didn't match up, i decided to figure this out.  this parts a pain in the ass and time consuming, but makes the final product come out killer.  once the front pieces are cut out i line the pocket pattern up with where it will be placed on the shirt and mark the shirt's (plaid) pattern on the paper pattern; that way i can line up the  (plaid) patterns when i cut out the pocket pieces.

you can see with a little patience and practice you can get the pattern pieces to match up pretty well--that shut the guys up at the bike shop!  (click to get a close up)

next step is to attach the two front bands where the buttons and buttonholes go.  again, carefully matching up the patterns.

after attaching the front 2 pieces to the back panel you put the collar on.  this part is a little magic--getting everything to line up and fold over onto itself so that no raw edges are showing.  as i was making this i was just thinking how pysched the first person who figured out how to do this must have been!  seriously, like magic.

the other thing i wanted to focus on was the sleeve plackets for the cuffs.  on all my previous shirts i had just been attaching a continuous band, folding one side under and stitching it, but i wanted to try a fancier way of finishing it off.  the nicer way has two separate pieces; one of which actually gets sewn up and over the other side, that way the whole placket lays flat and one side "hides" the other one.  so fancy.  total bitch to do.

then comes the sweet 3-d fun phase and all the sides get sewn up.

the final bit of sewing is attaching the cuffs.  i think the plackets came out pretty nice.  i went back and looked over some other store bought shirts in my closet and saw how i could do it a little better, but not bad for a first try.

add some buttons, buttonholes, finish the bottom, and add a tag and... yeah baby! we got a shirt.

like i said, i've got a couple more to make that have slight variations, so i'll just be showing how i stray from this model, but this is the basic shirt.