Menswear Purple Shirt: Part 2

Finally I am getting around to posting the second half of the Purple Shirt. It's been a long few weeks lacking the energy and time to post to the blog. Sorry for that. 

Moving along, one of the most important things I've found in making, well, anything really, is to take the time to press. Press your seams, press your seams open, and press your seams to the side(s) as desired. It makes a big difference.

 With all of the pieces for the shirt cut out I attached the back to the yoke and the yoke, in turn, to the shirt front pieces at the shoulders.  I added a line of topstitching to the bottom of the yoke just for decorative effect.

I hemmed and pressed the sleeves, making sure all of the necessary marks were in place.

At this point I attached the sleeves to the body and pressed the button placket into place.

The shoulder seams and sleeves were flat-felled. It's not only nice looking, it also provides a strong, clean, long-lived seam.

I love how the black thread looks on the purple fabric!

After attaching the sleeves I stitched up the sides of the shirt.  You'll notice now that the front and back don't match at the hem.  I find this sometimes happens when I've pulled a pattern from a finished garment.

Many years of stretching and shrinking can make it difficult to pull a perfect pattern. I find that I almost always have to fix small inconsistencies, like this hem, which had to be trimmed of several cm of fabric in order for the sides to match even though everything else on the shirt matched nearly perfectly.

Finally, I worked on the collar. Each of the four pieces received fusible interfacing.

I could have fretted over being out of black interfacing but honestly I don't think I have ever had it show through dark fabric before.

  

With the collar turned and pressed I attached it to the stand.

These were attached to the neck of the garment and topstitching was added.

Typically I do all of my buttonholes by hand. I love a good hand-worked buttonhole. I love how it looks and I enjoy the process. But it also takes longer, and time is something I am short of these days, so I went ahead and made machine-made button holes instead.  

This is the first time I've done the tiny buttons and buttonholes on the collar and I really love the look. It keeps the short-sleeved dress shirt looking formal even when it isn't buttoned all of the way up.

My husband was a good sport and modeled his new shirt for me.  I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Of course my mind is already buzzing with ideas on how to tweak the pattern to make it look and fit even better. But for now, he is happy with it and I intend to use the pattern several more times before altering it.

I may not have been able to save his favorite shirt, but I think I did a decent job of making a replacement. ^_^

Hope your week is going well!