Father's Day gift: men's shirt refashion

My husband is pretty hard to shop for, not because he has everything, but because he usually ends up buying his own gifts. But every now and then I get a great idea and can surprise him. For Father's Day this year, I planned on buying my husband a tshirt from a local brewery. He is a cyclist, and the shirt reads "Ride Bikes Drink Beer". Just one problem: when I went to purchase a shirt, all they had left was XXL and Small. Whomp whomp.

But like I always say, when life hands you an XXL shirt, you just cut it up and custom-sew a new one (don't you always say that?). Last summer, I taught my husband how to sew, and part of his lessons included copying his favorite tshirt and making a pattern. Before cutting up the tshirt, I double-checked that it would work and laid the pattern on top.

It was close enough :) I decided to keep the neckline and shoulder seams intact, so when placing the pattern on top of the shirt I offset it by the amount of the seam allowance.

Next, I cut the sides of the tshirt open and cut the sleeves off at the seam. I folded the fabric down the center and used the pattern to cut the front and back. I also cut the sleeves down to fit the pattern. 

After reassembling my new pieces, I now have a smaller shirt!

My husband was happy to get a custom-made shirt, and I was happy to use my skills to overcome an annoying problem of a sold-out gift. 

Have you ever cut down a too-big shirt to fit? 

Hemming Jeans

We have a running joke in our house that "if only" my husband knew somebody who sewed, then we could solve all his wardrobe issues. This is a joke because I rarely take the time to alter garments for him, as much as he needs it (bad wife!). He has a pair of brown jeans that he wears often, which were too long. No more!

This is how he was wearing his jeans. Rolled up. I THOUGHT it was because there was snow outside and he was trying to keep them dry...but then there wasn't any more snow. And they stayed rolled. I finally got around to hemming them when I realized I had brown thread on my sewing machine. LazyBeth for the win!

Finished hem.

I learned this hemming technique in the Craftsy class Tailoring Ready-to-Wear, taught by Angela Wolf (affiliate link). Yes, you can simply rip out the hem and then sew it again, which works fine for dress pants. But Angela shows you how to alter a jeans hem so that you can keep the original distressed edge. The final product keeps the original topstitching, so all of your sewing is inside the pants.

The technique is hard to explain in photos, but the Angela does a great job with her video in the class. You basically sew just inside the original hem with a zipper foot, so that you're getting as close to the original hem as you can, removing the fabric above it. You remove the excess fabric and then finish the raw edge.

By the way, I'm not very good at serging in-the-round! Especially over the thick double-folded jeans seams. While I'm at it, my regular sewing machine wasn't that good at dealing with the bulk, either (even with a jeans needle).

The trouble with my machines meant that this project turned out to be more time-consuming than I thought, but it was worth it in the end. I do have one tip: make sure the jeans are freshly washed, and that your subject sits down to test the new hem length. After washing, these "tightened up" a bit, as jeans tend to do, and when my husband sits down they're a touch short. But he's happy he doesn't have to roll them up anymore, and I'm happy I did some self-less sewing for once!

Coat Making: Resources

I have no idea how many work-hours I have in my completed Albion, but it's probably equal to the amount of research-hours I invested. SO MANY LINKS. And also books. So how's about we put them all in one place to reference later?

First of all, the modifications I made were inspired by my own winter coat (you can see photos here). I studied this coat as much as possible without tearing it apart, and used my best judgement to plan order of construction, etc. (many nights falling asleep going over construction in my head). I also practiced the collar during my muslin stage.

Books:

Tailoring: The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket--VERY informative, and will teach you all you need to know about tailoring a more traditional coat or suit jacket. Also goes in depth about supplies like interfacing and linings. Plenty of info that transfers into coat-making.

Links:

How to Preshrink Wool at Home--This is the method I used. You need to preshrink wool somehow, otherwise when you press/steam your seams will shrink!
Another Preshrinking Discussion
All About Linings--Also be sure to preshrink your linings!

How to Sew a Welt Pocket--I used this tutorial to insert my welt pocket and it worked perfectly. I drafted my own pattern pieces based on the size of my husband's cell phone.
How to Bag a Jacket Lining
How to Bag a Lining without a Weird Pleat
It should be noted that the Albion pattern does not have you bag the lining, but I decided to try it this way. I ended up doing the sleeve hems differently so honestly I didn't use anybody's directions!

All my testing for automatic buttonholes was disastrous. I quickly realized that I would need to sew the buttonholes (all five of them) by hand. Le sigh!
How to Sew a Buttonhole by Hand--Fantastic tutorial.
How to Sew a Buttonhole with a Zig-Zag Stitch
(video) How to Sew a Buttonhole Stitch--This helped me the most with the actual stitch.

This is my final post on the Albion, which has been haunting me for months now. It was the most expensive, ambitious, taxing sewing project I've ever undertaken. When it was done I refused to take it back into my sewing room for even minor tweaks or pressing, because I was so over it. I'm proud that I made a coat. I'm proud that I made complicated pattern modifications and it didn't end in disaster. But is it my favorite thing? No. Is it my husband's go-to every day coat? No. Do I sometimes wish I could burn it into a pile of ash? Yes.

But I hope that I won't always feel that way. I had very high expectations for myself, probably unfairly so, and I need to learn to take it easy on me. I kind of feel the way I felt after I made my first pair of trousers. Like I learned a whole hell of a lot, but like it was work when sewing is usually fun.

In the end, it's always an accomplishment when something leaves the sewing room for the closet. And maybe that's all that matters.

Coat Making: Choosing Supplies

I spent a LOT of time selecting fabrics/supplies for my husband's Albion coat. I did plenty of research and I think it would be helpful to share my thought process and how I chose one thing over another.

The shell:

If money had been no object, I would have ordered wool melton from Mood. But at $20/yard, needing 4 yards, it wasn't in the budget. Instead, I ordered a 100% wool coating from Fabric Mart for the exterior shell. It was thinner than I expected (seemed more like a suiting weight) but as I worked with it I was glad for the weight. Some areas of the coat had 5-6 layers of wool, and it would have been impossible for me to sew that much bulk with a thicker fabric. I read that the tightness of the weave is just as important as the actual weight, and since this fabric is heavily felted it's still warm. The finished coat is SO. HEAVY. that I can't imagine using a thicker fabric, so I was lucky.

The wool was very easy to work with, which was nice since it was my first time using wool yardage! Here's a close-up of the fabric. It has a very subtle herringbone design that gives it some visual texture:

It was a closeout deal, so there isn't any left (sorry!). The only thing I didn't like about it was its attraction to pet hair. Even with excessive lint-rolling there are always cat/dog/people hairs sticking to it.

The lining:

I considered all kinds of things for the lining. Silks, flannel, flannel-backed satin, quilted yardage, Thinsulate, on and on. All of them had drawbacks. Silk would have easily slid over clothing, but it's expensive and breaks down when it interacts with sweat. Flannel is warm, but difficult to find a high quality and doesn't slide over clothes. Flannel-backed satin would have been my ideal choice, but the quality at Jo-Ann's was unimpressive, and it was hard to source elsewhere. Quilted yardage is expensive. Thinsulate can't be pressed (it melts) and is more appropriate for a puffy ski-style coat (so I read). Ultimately, I decided on a flannel lining for the bodice, and Bemberg rayon for the sleeves.

The plaid fabric in the first photo was my eventual choice. It's flannel from the Platitudes collection at Jo-Ann's. Most flannel from there tends to be thin and terrible, but I made two shirts from Platitudes flannel last year and they have held up very well. I was happy with this flannel except that it was off-grain.

The grey lining is Bemberg rayon from Mood. While shopping in some nicer stores over Christmas (J. Crew, Brooks Bros.) I studied the suit jackets and they were all lined with Bemberg rayon. If it's good enough for a $400 suit jacket, it's good enough for me! While a nightmare to cut, the Bemberg was easy to sew and press. It was a bit fiddly to hem, and ripping stitches out was frustrating. Overall, I'm kind of meh on it and might consider something else next time.

Interfacing:

Originally I thought I would make my husband a tailored pea coat, and that opened the door to many types of interfacing. But given the simplicity of the Albion pattern, it didn't need a lot of tailored work. I went with a mid-weight fusible interfacing. I've found that anything stronger than mid-weight is awfully stiff, and makes buttonholes much more difficult (although I ended up sewing them by hand anyway).

I'm kind of torn about the stiffness of the stand-up collar (which is two layers of wool, each interfaced). Owning a similar coat myself, I know that a stiff collar is useful when you want it around your face, but I'm also constantly pushing it out of my way because it bugs me. I guess a mid-weight interfacing is the best compromise.

Odds and ends:

The buttons are all from Jo-Ann's (yay for buy one get one free on Black Friday!). I'm sure there's a nicer choice out there, but a few dollars here and there on so many details adds up over a whole project.

The white piping inside the coat is also the store-bought poly stuff that everyone hates. Sorrynotsorry that I didn't make my own, but my time is worth more than the cost to purchase.

The ribbing inside the collar is from Wawak. It's heavy-duty ribbing made specifically for jackets, and it comes in a pre-cut size. To have enough length, I ordered the "waistband ribbing" and cut it down to fit. I was very pleased with this ribbing and the price is right.


If anyone was curious, I probably have around $100 in materials in this coat, half of which was the coating fabric (I got a good deal!). It's by far the most expensive garment I've ever made. Coats can be quite the investment piece!

Tomorrow I'll go over the resources I used to learn about coat-making and include links to some helpful tutorials.

Albion

I teased. I mentioned this coat a month ago and then didn't mention it again. So here it is, two months in the making, my husband's Albion!

Fabric is wool coating from Fabric Mart.

I used buttons instead of toggles.

I left off the hood and drafted a stand-up collar.

The coat body is lined with cotton flannel from Jo-Ann's.

The sleeves are lined with Bemberg rayon from Mood.

Patch pockets.

Extra topstitching on the back yoke.

I added piping to the facings and a ribbed interior collar.

I inserted a welt pocket in the lining.

I hand-embroidered this tag and sewed it inside.

Interior piping.

Collar with interior ribbing.

I sewed and inserted a loop for hanging.

Sleeve tab.

All five buttonholes were sewn by hand.

This post is picture-heavy and light on the text, but I promise more details later this week. There is a lot to say about this coat!

What I'm Reading: Patternmaking for Menswear

There were a few books I was dying to receive for Christmas, and my husband came through big time! At the top of my list (okay, let's be real, there were 5 things at the top) was the book Patternmaking for Menswear. I first saw this book on Instagram, via Andrea at four square walls. Then I read Peter's review on Male Pattern Boldness and had. to. have. it.

This book reminds me a lot of the Sew U books by Wendy Mullin. The beginning introduces slopers (in this book, an upper body, a sleeve, and pants) and then shows how to alter a flat pattern for a completely different look. There are 20 different variations on the slopers and details on how to draft them. You'll find everything from a knit polo to outerwear.

Obviously, the bulk of the work is in drafting the slopers, but this book gives a thorough explanation of how to do it. All without the trouble of bust darts : ) There's also information about grading and some industry processes. One thing that is NOT in this book is information on construction and actual sewing. This is strictly a patternmaking book, and a very detailed one at that!

I think we're all amazed at how a boring, boxy sloper can evolve into something like, say, a hoodie. It's one part good design, and ten parts math, from the looks of it!

I'm not overly fond of math, but I don't mind using it for the sake of menswear drafting. The current men's pattern options are beyond sad. If you've ever tried to sew for men, you already know that. Pajama pants! Scrubs! Fleece vests! Thanks Big 4. I definitely want to focus on sewing for my husband this year, and in order to do that well I will need patterndrafting skills. I'm grateful to have this book on my shelf as a reference. I don't think he'll be asking me for an anorak anytime soon, but it's still cool to know how to draft one!

Men's Pea Coat, part 1 (of 1,000)

In my sneak peek post on Monday, I showed this photo:

Could you tell that it's a men's pattern? It's Vogue 8940. Somehow I got it in my head that I should make my husband a coat for Christmas. I think it was the new Colette Albion that inspired me. I ordered that pattern right away, but by the time it got here my husband decided it wasn't quite his style. My mind was spinning with ways I could alter the Albion, and then I found this Vogue pattern and started jumping up and down (almost literally). Plus it was a few days before Vogues were going on sale at Jo-Ann's. Kismet!

We went to Target and tried on similar coats, and hubby decided he'd like the short version, View A. Except without that weird rectangle of topstitching on the front. Basically, View B but at the length of A. And without the pocket tabs. And maybe we'll change the shape of the collar/lapel.

I'm still waiting on the lining fabric (thanks for 20% off on Black Friday, Mood!) but I've slowly assembled all the other things I need. This week I finished my first muslin and we had a fitting. Next week...I'll be cutting and sewing a brand new muslin. Ugh.

My husband typically wears a size 46 jacket (his chest is 45 1/2"), so that's what I cut for the muslin. He's tall and broad, but his torso is pretty normal. Most RTW 46 jackets fit his chest, but are baggy in the torso and the sleeves are too short. I assumed the same thing would happen with my muslin...but you know what happens when you assume ;) The muslin was too big all over. I'm going to redo it in a straight 44 and go from there. Here are some photos, it was nighttime and I quickly snapped these for future reference:

So far, I'm very pleased with the drafting of this pattern. There were 2 reviews on PR and they were both favorable. I've made one other pea coat, but it was baby-sized and had way fewer pieces. The instructions for this pattern are really good (even though I've skipped around for muslin-ing), all the notches match up and Vogue managed to make it feel a bit intuitive. I'm anxious to get going with my fashion fabric, but for now I'm stuck tracing a size 44 for another muslin. We're about to have our first Snowmageddon here in the Midwest (every snow fall greater than 2 inches=end of the world), so here's hoping I get a lot of work done on it this weekend.

Finished Negroni shirt!

I'm not sure how to go about this review. If you want to know how I feel about the Negroni pattern, A+. If you want to know how I feel about the completed shirt I made, eh...it's a C. Maybe a B if it's Friday and the teacher is feeling generous because it's almost the weekend.

By the way, this fabric (a linen/rayon blend from Jo-Ann's) is impossible to photograph. Half the time I couldn't even see it with my bare eyes. Some of these pictures are purposefully overexposed because that was the only way you can see any detail.

As the person who sewed the shirt, of course I can only focus on the negatives. The pockets aren't even, the sleeves are too long, one cuff opening is smaller than the other...but there are good things, too.

Next time I'll put the pockets on last.

The chest fits well, the length is just right, and it's constructed well. It was the first time I'd done a real sleeve placket, and my first patch pockets, oddly enough. It's probably the sturdiest garment I've ever produced, thanks to the flat-felled seams, and it was also my first time with those (they weren't so bad!).

Flat-felled side seam.

I spent a loooooong time on this shirt. We had a few rainy days and that meant I stayed inside and sewed a lot. And then our house got hit by lightning and I had LOTS of time to finish it!

The day it was done and I discovered the issues with the cuffs and the sleeves, I was feeling very down about the whole thing. There's nothing worse than spending ages on something that doesn't turn out how you hoped. I went out to run some errands and had this in my mailbox:

My Grandma sent it to me, along with a letter saying that I had made it for her a long long time ago. She said that she thought she should keep it until I was a famous seamstress, but that I might want to have my first project.

To say that this letter made my day would be an understatement. It was such a nice reminder that putting love into a gift I've made is more important than how it looks. Sounds cheesy, but there it is.

But let's get down to the nitty gritty!

The instructions for this pattern are excellent. There is a sew-along over at Male Pattern Boldness, but I only used it once to double check that I understood about how to flat-fell the armscythe seam. The changes I made to the pattern are noted in this post. In the future, I'll shorten the sleeves a little and also triple-check the way I cut the sleeves. I think I cut them incorrectly and that's why the cuffs ended up so wonky.

I omitted the loop at the neck. The other two changes I made had to do with the front facing (by the way, a facing is a lot easier to deal with than a placket like on Simplicity 2447). The instructions have you double-fold the raw edge and stitch it down to itself. I was afraid of too much bulk and decided to use rayon seam binding instead. This was my first time using this stuff and it. is. awesome! Easy to use, presses so well, and looks nice when you're done! Sorry it's red...I bought it to use with another project so it doesn't match this shirt.

I also slipstitched the facing to the shirt. It was only secured in the shoulder seam, hem, and buttonholes, which meant I had an unsightly facing flapping around with visible interfacing. Yuck. The slipstitching didn't take too long once I got into a rhythm with it, and you can't see it from the outside.

It may be a while before I make another one of these. I'm still reading Shirtmaking and the instructions for drafting your own men's shirt pattern are pretty good. I may start with the Negroni and go from there to make a sloper for my husband.

Now that this is done, I'm sure I'll be back at my forgiving, easy-to-love knits! Have you done any sewing for men? How did it turn out?

It's Thrifty Thursday! Snatch up the Varsity Cowl-Neck Pullover for $4 today only, at Peek-A-Boo Pattern Shop. See my review of this great pattern (perfect for fall!) here. Be sure to check out the rest of the fall line, there are lots of cute patterns!

Men's shirt pattern adjustments

Confession: I've never blended two sizes on a pattern. When I sew for myself I cut the smallest size and adjust as I'm sewing. When I sew for AB, if something doesn't fit just right I don't bother to fix it because she'll grow into it eventually. So when it came time to draft customized pattern pieces for my husband's Negroni, I was oddly terrified. 

Yesterday I talked about David Page Coffin's book, Shirtmaking. The book is fabulous and mentions that the most important part of a well-fitting shirt is the shoulder. The rest can be adjusted based on personal preference. 

My muslin was certainly too short in the shoulder point, and too tight through the chest, but fit fine through the torso. Here's how I developed my new pattern pieces, starting with piece A (shirt front).

I already had a Large pattern piece traced because of my muslin. I traced the XLarge and placed it behind my Large pattern piece. This photo shows the bottom of the armscythe and the top of the side seam. Checking where I marked on my muslin, I needed to grade from XL to L starting about where the notches are in this photo.

I don't have a French curve so I freehanded a line starting at the end of the armscythe and blending down to the notch. Then I cut on the line, as you can see in the photo above. I repeated these steps for the back pattern piece, double checking that the line I drew was the same shape as the line from the shirt front.

Here's how the new back pattern piece looked once cut it out. Since the whole chest area is XLarge, I did not have to make any adjustments to the yoke pieces, I could use an unaltered XL piece. However, I did have to change the shirt front facing piece because it runs the full height of the shirt, which was now slightly different.

I really only needed a bit more length in the shoulder area, which I added on to my original Large pattern piece.

To recap:

Piece A (shirt front) is a blended XL/L.
Piece B (back yoke and yoke facing) are XL.
Piece C (shirt back) is XL.
Piece D (front facing) is a blended XL/L.
Piece E (collar) is XL.
Piece G (long sleeve) is XL.
Piece J (cuff) is XL.

If you make any adjustments to a Negroni or any shirt pattern, make sure you track the domino effect that it will have on all the pattern pieces. Since the chest was XL, that meant the sleeve needed to be XL, which meant the cuff needed to be XL...on and on. Go slowly and double-check your work, especially before cutting into your real fabric!

At this point, it might have been wise to make a second muslin...but I'm not all that wise. I got to work with my real fabric. Check back next week for the big reveal!

Shirtmaking: Developing Skills for Fine Sewing

Yesterday my house was hit by lightning. And not the metaphorical, I-had-a-great-idea kind of lightning. The literal, white-hot, loud-doesn't-begin-to-describe it kind of lightning. We're all okay, but I can't say the say for many of our electronics, including our wireless router. So please forgive a slow response on comments and possible technical glitches for a few days as we put our technical lives back together!

I can't decide if sewing for men is easy or hard. It's easy, because their fit issues are more simple. It's hard, because there aren't a lot of resources for learning how to do it well. Need information on a full bust adjustment? Boom, 80 zillion Google results. Need help fitting a tall man? Crickets.

Thank goodness for David Page Coffin! This book is exactly what I needed while sewing my husband's Negroni shirt. I definitely can't complain about the pattern directions, they were spot-on, but the book provided some extra diagrams and explanations to help a Nervous Nellie like me feel confident in what I was doing.

The book covers construction techniques of nicer men's shirts (i.e. not a t-shirt) including flat-felled seams, collars with and without stands, plackets, etc. There is a section on fit, as well as drafting a pattern with draping. I doubt I'll ever convince my husband to stand still long enough to drape fabric all over him...but it's a nice thought!

As an added bonus, there are pages and pages of templates to use for collars, pockets, and plackets. And they're even full-size! No running off to a copy shop to enlarge them (has anyone ever actually done that?).

If you plan on making a dressy shirt like these (for a man or woman) I highly recommend this book. Someday I want to make a pair of pants for my husband, and when that day comes (in 20 years...) I'll be looking into Making Trousers, which is by the same author.

Do you have any good resources for sewing for men?