This Shirt Is My New Obsession: Christine Wada is a genius

 

I am clearly losing my touch if I missed this last week.

To my credit, I am watching this show on a teeny laptop in my basement

(which has been a balm and a blessing during our heat wave)

not in the promo art

So we gotta take this one apart because I WANNNNNNNTTTTTT

I am trying to find photos of the back of this shirt. Pretty sure I am going to have to make my own screen grabs of this. 

But I did find this, which proves how AMAZING the costuming is on this show

https://twitter.com/sophiadimartino/status/1410512718952607744

Also pretty sure after an hour of sketching that I am going to have to drape this to see how to make that one seamless piece and which way the bias is running on it to get it to drape that nicely. That's a woven shirting fabric.

This post will be continued. Any ideas or suggestions, lemme know in the comments. If you know anyone with any intelligence on this shirt PLEASE pass my query along.

Men's shirts and collar stays

Somebodies already did the work on this topic.
I'm just making mashup contrasty pictures of it.

https://notesfromamadhousewife.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/collar-stay-channel-tutorial/

https://notesfromamadhousewife.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/img_95372.jpg

I like her version the best. It's almost just like all the real ones I've seen, and she gives you the instructions for assembly.

But this is hard to see.

And there's a free pattern for a similar thing, which we're going to borrow. But let me make this clear, this is Mad Housewife's Idea. This is.... the children's book version.

https://threadtheory.ca/products/free-collars

If you combine her ideas with their pieces, you get a pretty nice collar for free. Her recommendation to stretching the smaller undercollar and showing the results is sweet.
Go read it on her page!
Then come back.

Looking at the shirts in the family closet, I mocked this example up. I used contrasting scraps to show the fabric layers.

The grey is the under collar, the dark grey is the pieced section. Make sure you cut them ongrain; small pieces go wrong so fast if you don't. You would make them of the same colors, unless you are Robert Graham and then you would not.

 https://www.robertgraham.us/

My spouse has a couple less flashy RG shirts. They can be very worth that extra money, though we bought his at the thrifts. They hold up well.

Folded over the edge once. I'm not anticipating a lot of fraying in this place, so I didn't finish it

I have wandering collar stays around the laundry area, picked a random one. They vary a little, but generally are about this big.

Roughly there

Marked it

Stitched it

It is important to leave enough clearance to get that stay into the slot next to the interior collar seam fold. You could leave a lot more and the stay wouldn't wander. Except in the wash, and they do that anyway.

This is the wrong side.

 Marked where seam lines go.
This collar point is a little weird to me, but to each their own.

The actual stay in the actual shirt it was made for. My thumb is pointing to where the fold meets the collar stand seam. Yes, this collar point is a lot different.

With similar layered piece thinking and a button loop, you could do this

No finished products, just half samples today. The holidays are busy with family and managing disappointments. 

Sewing for Friends Continues: the Doug Edition

Doug's beloved Pendleton silk aloha shirt had run it's course. And the idea of making a new shirt for him has percolated for a long time.

That shirt has been hovering on the rack in the back of a lot of photos.

The black floral on the rack.

It's time came this spring.

I took a million photos of fabric in stores (redacted here for brevity).

We shopped the stash. The red cowgirls almost made the cut, but the barkcloth is too heavy for this.

We went to the store. Pacific Fabrics is open after work so this stuff can get done.

He chose the Japanese double gauze. 

The measurements were taken, a style was agreed on. A pattern was dug out and altered.

I may have four thrifted copies of this one pattern, Simplicity 5581. The bucket hat is lost to time, sadly, but the cargo shorts (not pictured) found their way into another envelope. 

Kind of a "one stop shopping for summer" pattern set. To add to the envelope space crunch, both mens and boys sizes are included. And they never all make it back into the envelope when you take them out - they just expand.

But this photo made me really look at the stripe option for the first time. Huh.

That could be very cool. 

Because there is not going to be a chest pocket.

This is where I admit to you, dear reader, that double gauze looks really frumpy to me, and no more so than with topstitching.

You know the classic 70's topstitch with the deep trench of thread, compacting the puffy fabric and giving that fat sloppy edge?

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK
this image taken from
http://kathyloghry.blogspot.com/2016/08/thats-so-70s-pantsuit.html

This is also whyI hate hate hate stretch denim patch pockets. They always look dodgy to me. Same reason.

And IG followers will notice that a lot of the inprogress questions were resolved on that platform.

So it did, indeed, get a front and a sleeve turned.

After all that, it's just a men's shirt.

Buttons auditioned. Still can't find those white pearl buttons.

The one in the lower left is from a huge set (20?) that looks like clear yellow plastic with straw bits. They don't go with anything, but they always get another audition.

One good thing about double gauze is you can catch stitch through one layer to secure the facings or the hem.

And it does not show. 

I hate my buttonholes.

I want one of these dedicated buttonholers from the dry cleaners. Or I want them to make my buttonholes for me.

I did grade out a lot of the seams (lotta layers in double gauze, awfully lumpy). 

As well, I did fake flat seam the side seams.

Which are easily hand sewn down.

And it's a shirt.

Another story from the House Of Dud

Sometimes whatever I do just turns into a fail. They tend to run in packs, these failures, and it gets pretty demoralizing. "Who the hell am I, what do I think I'm doing writing about sewing when I can't even: blah blah blah.

And then there's the actual item itself. Do I consider making it into something else, and consign it to the UFO tub or do I just recycle it? And is this a scrap pile recycle, or a hard 'send it in the bag to the thrift' expulsion?

No, I didn't forget the seam allowances. I graded up 7 friggin inches for my spacious behind. And no, just no.

Or could I burn it in some ritual sacrifice? Sigh. No. I'd have to pull the nylon zipper out so I wouldn't be making some toxic stuff to accidentally breathe in; because when you burn a failure, you are always downwind. Always.

This is when I turn to mending. Generally, if it's in the mending pile, it's not carrying a heavy weight of expectations. And I am better at mending that most things. 

Edgar Martinez Day is coming up. I bought this back in the days before children, when I weighed as much as a sack of dog food.

I also smoked like a chimney; it was not all good times.

Going to have to open the whole seam out to widen it for my adult frame. That's what I said and that's what I'm calling it now. The sleeve gusset is just not enough.

Making another shirt for the blond one.  This is the same pattern I made the purple plaid jacket from. Apparently I did not write about the plaid shirt jacket, cause I can't find it on here. How can this be? It was EPIC.

He's just taller, not wider, and it's short sleeved. This is an easy peasy make, from some hoarded linen (two years? It was foisted on me at Pacific Fabrics and I could not stop myself from buying it because POLKA DOTS).

He makes the next one.