Re: Hand stitching

On Fri, 5 Dec 2008 07:16:48 -0800, TammyM <privacy@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It's a fairly ordinary man's shirt although the fabric totally makes it.
It's for construction (durable), not decorative. Love the sound of the
resources you've suggested, THANK YOU!


The instructions below are going to sound very complex, but they really
aren't.... the worst part of the job is in preparing a home sewing
pattern for factory construction methods, which these are.

I'm also not going to mention how to do sleeve plackets, because everyone
has their own methods. I happen to think the funny placket with the
"house" shape in Coffin's book goes together beautifully, and recommend
you read those pages and give it a try -- I think it starts about p. 60:
http://tinyurl.com/5d7jsf (Shirtmaking is a really common book to find
in libraries... you may be able to pick it up on your way home.)

Kay's quick and dirty shirt construction method... almost entirely by machine,
though I hand sew buttons. And I use a serger for sleeve and side seams.

1) If the pattern has an applied band in front (as opposed to cut and folded),
fix the pattern first by finding the center front and adding 2.75" beyond that.
See a separate post on shirt front band making and sewing I'm going to dredge
up.

2) On the pattern, reduce seam allowances to 3/8", except for
outside edge of collar, 1/4" No trimming and clipping, more precision.
Makes setting in sleeves easy.

KEEP ALL THE NOTCH MARKINGS! Just draw a line perpendicular to the cut line
through the center of the notches, about 1/2" long, toward the body of the
shirt, then cut off the 1/4" to leave you with 3/8" seam allowance. You're
going to mark the notches when you cut out by making a 1/8" deep straight
snip into the cut edge of the fabric. (And I usually "reinforce" that mark
with a quick line of chalk, for easier spotting.)

3) Fold two sheets of paper in half and cut out the collar and collar band
on the fold, so you've got two complete collars, two complete collar band
patterns, with the notches and grainlines copied. Mark one of the collar
pieces "upper collar -- cut one" and one "under collar --cut one".
Ditto "outer collar band -- cut one" and inner collar band --cut one"
Also cut a duplicate copy of the cuff. Mark one "outer
cuff -- cut two" and one "inner cuff --cut two".

4) Pull out the outer cuff pattern, inner collar band pattern and under
collar pattern you've just made. Trim a further 1/8" off the outside edges
of the cuff (the part that doesn't get sewn directly to the sleeve), the
outer edges of the collar (the diagonal bits and the outside edge). Take a
1/8" tuck in the middle of the inner collar band. All of these pieces wind
up being on the inside of curves, and that smidge off helps you roll the
seam to the underside slightly and maintain the curve without buckling.

5) Lay out your pattern, and if at all possible, keep enough fabric together
in one area to lay out the pieces from #4 properly. If so, you can just cut
out that piece that's big enough for those pieces and "block fuse" -- fuse
interfacing to the whole piece of fabric, THEN cut it out. Again, saves
time, improves accuracy.

6) Cut out your fabric, stabilizing it with paper (improves cutting accuracy,
which makes sewing easier). Make sure the grainlines are correct and don't
forget to mark all the notches.

7) Fuse the front bands, as directed in my other post; turn and sew them.

8) Pockets can be made and sewn on now.

9) At this point, you can do a number of operations -- the whole idea is to
keep the major pattern pieces flat as long as you can, so at this point,
what I do is to construct the collar and set it into the band; construct the
cuffs, and press. If you want to leave 'em till later, fine.

10) Baste or press the pleats into the back body piece. Sandwich the back
body piece between the bottom edges of the yoke pieces; sew. Press the
yoke pieces upward into wearing position, and topstitch... you now have the
back seam sandwiched between the yoke pieces.

11) Training wheels time: Machine baste the inside yoke at the shoulder
seam to the front shoulder area of the shirt front. The trick now is to
get the outside yoke piece attached, no? What you're going to do is
finger press 3/8" seam allowance under on the back yoke shoulder seam
of the outside piece, and place it over the shirt front, as if it was
sewn down. Just hold it there and look at it. Do you see how, if you
reached in through the through the armhole areas, you could
pin just the seam allowance you finger pressed under to the basted area,
in proper sewing position? Do so! You'll just pull that seam area out
through the armscye area and stitch it. -->When you figure out how this
works, you don't need to do the first basting, nor the fingerpressing...
just put the front shoulder seam allowance between the two yoke
allowances, sort of shove that seam allowance toward the outside world
and stitch.<-- Press and topstitch.

12) Sew collar and collar band to neckline. Press and topstitch.

13) Make the shirt sleeve plackets and baste in the pleats at the
edge of the sleeve that will be going into the cuff.

14) Pin the sleeves into the body of the shirt at the notches and the
shoulder notch. Put the sleeve side against the feed dogs and sew.
(Use a serger if you're brave, otherwise baste, then serge.) (Or do
the more uptown version and baste in the sleeve, then fell that seam.
Press.

15) Sew the side seam and underarm seam.

16) Cuffs

17) Hem

18) Buttonholes (I've found that if I put in a brand new needle just before
making buttonholes, the buttonholes are nicer. Since I'm usually sewing shirts
in clots of 5 or 6, I leave this needle in till step 18 of the next shirt, then
put in a new one, etc.)

19) Buttons

20) Place on hanger and admire.

Starch can be your friend for buttonholes... you can starch the front
band and cuffs like crazy in the area the buttonholes are going into, and
then do the buttonholes.

Kay

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Kind of Blue
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    (rec.crafts.textiles.quilting)
  • Re: Fussy-cutting/Seam-matching
    ... Sounds like you are trying to match a "check pattern" yes??? ... You have one fabric you are cutting squares from. ... then trimming the seam after sewing it. ... two fabrics are very tiny complementing checkerboard patterns, ...
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    (rec.crafts.textiles.sewing)
  • Re: Should I or shouldnt I?
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