Monthly Archives: July 2016

The Pink Shirt, Part 2

For this installment of the Pink Shirt project, I’m covering (almost) all of the style decisions that are going into the project.

As was apparent from Part 1, if I want a nice pink shirt Brooks Brothers is happy to sell me one for $49.50 – probably less if I can find a discount coupon somewhere.  So, I’d like to come up with a unique item that distinguishes itself from something I can buy off the rack at the store.  That, along with a custom fit, is one of the advantages of being a home sewist.

(You can click or tap any picture for an enlargement).

Pattern and Fit

The Brooks Brothers shirt is a sport shirt.  In the online photo, it has some pretty straight sides.

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I’m planning to use my dress shirt pattern from the Blue Gingham Shirt project, with no major changes to the silhouette.  Coming from a dress shirt origin, mine has more tapered sides (see the screenshot below).

I’m thinking some of the styling will place this shirt somewhere between casual and dressy. Continue reading →

The Pink Shirt, Part 1

Many, many years ago I had a pink shirt in my wardrobe.  It was a little too pink, the fabric was a little too heavy, and the shirt was a little too loose fitting.  And somehow it ended up with ballpoint pen marks on one of the sleeves.  So out it went.

I’ve been thinking again about making dress shirts in pastel colors – light green, yellow, blue, and pink.  And then I started seeing these little ads in my Facebook feed.

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Continue reading →

Every Menswear Pattern Ever

…or at least, it seems like it.

Generally at the Bay Area Sewists meetups, I’m the only guy present and the door prize (usually a women’s sewing pattern, or a book filled with women’s sewing projects) isn’t really something that I’m going to sew.

Which is fine with me – I’m there to meet other sewists, look at what others have done, and exchange ideas.  It’s one of the things that I accept for taking on a hobby that has a miniscule amount of male participation.

Yesterday’s meetup was at the Sips N Sews studio.  And though I didn’t win the door prize this time around, I did walk out with an entire tub of menswear patterns:

IMG_20160717_165616 Continue reading →

Let’s Talk About Fitting Some More

Do you like fitting?  Me, I can’t get enough of it!  So let’s talk about fitting some more.

Following completion of the Tuxedo Shirts, I have turned back to the task of fitting a dress shirt muslin to myself.  I really want a dress shirt block that I can use for projects to come.

In a way, it was good to take some time away from this fitting project, because I was able to revisit this muslin with fresh eyes. Also, I enlisted some help from Tammy at Sips N Sews as a reviewer and fitting consultant. With several decades of sewing experience, she has an uncanny eye for spotting fitting issues and offering suggestions for solving them, and I am grateful for her help. Continue reading →