First steps

Thank you for your kind comments on my posts last week, it feels good to be back again. And a special thank you for those of you who gave suggestions or links to information on making a men’s shirt. Very helpful.

A side note on comments: I can’t reply to individual comments on my computer, somehow that’s only possible viewing my blog on my phone (must be browser specific). As I prefer working/typing on my computer, I don’t often reply to individual comments. Just know that I read and love them all).

Isn’t it strange, that somehow making a men’s shirt felt a bit intimidating? Like Nancy said, I’ve made a lot of shirts for myself. Also I”m not scared of (more) difficult projects and still a men’s shirt sounded like unknown territory. It isn’t actually. Once I was busy with cutting out the pattern pieces, sewing the yoke to the back it’s the same. The technique for sewing the sleeves and the side seams are a bit different, but other then that it’s about finding/using the right interfacing for the collar (heavier than a women’s shirt).

Working with a striped fabric is not new to me and I can get very ocd about matching stripes. Did a good job here I think.

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I did the chevron stripes in the way Pam Erny describes it here. Don’t know how I did not think of her tutorials, as they are so good and she’s a professional shirt-maker.

For the other pattern pieces I roughly matched the stripes, cut around the pattern pieces (to which I added seam allowances this time) and then matched the stripes for each individual piece before cutting at the seam allowances.

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As you can see the fabric of the two layers shifted a little before the final cutting. A bit more time but for me a necessary step.

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