The Christmas Shirt (aka McCalls 6044 take 2)

I made my dear partner another shirt, this one for Christmas. I used McCalls 6044 as previously blogged about in The Birthday Shirt. I used all the previous alterations to the pattern, but in addition to those I also lengthened the sleeves by 6cm.

Sleeves actually fit those long arms this time.

This is a lovely soft 100% cotton shirting purchased from Spotlight. I actually used the wrong side of the fabric as the right side because the blue lines were a little more subtle and just looked better.

Front

Back

Pockets and Pearl Snaps

I cut the pockets on the bias to add some visual interest. This made them a little tricky to sew. I had to be very careful not to stretch the fabric and distort the pocket shape. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. 

Back yoke also cut on the bias.

All the seams have been flat felled. I love this technique in a man's shirt. It's really not that hard to do and results in such a lovely neat finish, inside and out.

Tower Placket

As in The Birthday Shirt I replaced the continuous placket with a tower placket, but I lengthened this one to make rolling the sleeves up a little easier. I cut the tower placket on the bias and to avoid distorting the fabric, I fused a very lightweight interfacing to it. This worked beautifully and I was very pleased with the result. It hardly added any stiffness to the placket so it hasn't effected function at all.

Close up of shirt details

Instead of buttons, I used pearl snaps (press studs), a request from my partner. These came from snapsource.com and I applied them with my Snap Setter tool also purchased from the same supplier. I can't recommend this company enough. The snaps are really good quality and the Snapsetter Tool is very easy to use. Tip: don't attempt to apply snaps after 10pm or you may experience some abuse heated discussion from other members of your household. I speak from experience.

He's smiling...I think he likes it.

I have found sewing men's shirts very satisfying. It's fairly easy to achieve a good fit as they have less curves than women and they just turn out so well...just like a bought one, only better.

On a different note, I have joined Sarah from Goodbye Valentino in a Ready To Wear fast for 2014. That means I have given up buying Ready-to-Wear clothing from January 1 2014 – December 31, 2014 one year in favour of making my clothes. 

What constitutes a RTW fast? Refraining from buying ALL outerwear, dresses, tops, pants, shorts, sweaters, coats, exercise clothes, jeans and bathing suits. Shoes, socks and underwear are permitted 


Happy Sewing