I made this shirt! It has issues (shirtmakers, help please!)

[Guy Smiley]

houserichichi, I followed the Coffin shirtmaking book ("Coffin Shirtmaking" into amazon.com ought to bring it up). I think it's a pretty great book.

As far as the Jantzen collars, I was looking at one of their pics earlier today, and their collar did seem a little, err, cardboard-y?

 

[Freddy Vandecasteele]

From the little picture, you are on the right track,The draping looks realy good.
What Pattern did you use? What is the fabric? What linning did you use?
Also you have to give more info,Machine used, how are you making the buttoholes.
where do you live?
I would gladly send you Linning or give source info.
Congratulations
Freddy Vandecasteele

[email protected]

 

[Guy Smiley]

Sweet, thanks Freddy. I made the pattern myself with the help of a friend who did some draping on me. The fabric is something cheap ($9/yard). It seems kinda low thread count, but it's 100% cotton.

Is the lining the interfacing? I just used plain bleached muslin from Joann's. Is there something a lot better I could be using? For my first shirt, I wanted to keep it cheap.

In these photos you can see how silly narrow the sleeves are. Also the chest is a little tight cause when I attached the sleeves, they didn't quite fit the armhole

, so I had to fudge that a bit. Then there's an issue where the center back meets the yoke...there must be a bit too much fabric in the back there (?).

Actually that back photo is the first time I've had a good look at the back

. It's more billowy than I had thought.

I have a $130 Brother sewing machine (XL-3750), which I'm kinda impressed by. Though the motor is cheap. I haven't tried any buttonholes yet. I will try out the machine's automatic buttonhole to see how good it is.

By source info, do you mean shirting info? I'm not real sure where to get shirting....I just ordered some today online, but I can never find much variety (like stripes or windowpane). Oh, and I live in Chicago.

Thanks,
John

 

[ozonemania]

Thanks for the link from the other thread, I would have missed this thread. Don't know if you took this shirt any further, but it looks really good for a first shirt.

It makes me think I'd rather have a good tailored shirt in cheap fabric than a poorly tailored shirt in an exquisite fabric.

About all that talk about the floppy collar. I think it looks alright... there are some great shirts that do not have stiffly shaped collars. However if you do want a sturdier collar, I know some shirtmakers stiffen the collar by doubling or tripling the interfacing fabric.

 

[rjmaiorano]

Thats impressive as hell for a first attempt IMO, but I'm not a shirt maker so I dunno.

Personally I think the sleeves are pretty good, maybe a slight bit too tight, but not too much. I am a fan of slimmer sleeves and don't think there needs to be too much adjustment.

 

[Golf_Nerd]

Originally Posted by ozonemania

Thanks for the link from the other thread, I would have missed this thread. Don't know if you took this shirt any further, but it looks really good for a first shirt.

+1

Is an update available?

Originally Posted by ozonemania

It makes me think I'd rather have a good tailored shirt in cheap fabric than a poorly tailored shirt in an exquisite fabric.

+1

I messed up with my tailor, because I ordered eight shirts and three suits in total. But up to now the fit is not perfect. He insist of using expensive clothes.

Originally Posted by ozonemania

About all that talk about the floppy collar. I think it looks alright... there are some great shirts that do not have stiffly shaped collars. However if you do want a sturdier collar, I know some shirtmakers stiffen the collar by doubling or tripling the interfacing fabric.

By creating your own shirt it is no problem to replace the collar.

 

[Douglas]

Perhaps the sleeves are a tad too trim, if you feel them as overly restrictive to your movement. However, they do not look bad to my eye - and you have the slim figure to pull off a closely fitted shirt.

I might eliminate the side pleats if I were you, but I think you've done a hell of a job. You look better than 90% of the "critique my custom shirt" threads. I wish I had the patience and the ability to pull off what you've done. Nice work.