Men's shirt pieces
As usual, the during-week sewing is scant and slow. I did manage to cut out my mens shirt muslin, as the long-awaited MPB sewalong is finally under way. I’ve marked (a lot more than I typically do), with my “allegedly disappears with water” marker, and interfaced half the cuffs and one of the collar bands. I am not going to interface the front button placket, as per discussions with the Sewista Fashionista. I can’t wait to start sewing, but I guess I should keep in step with the sewalong. I’m not doing pockets (today’s post) but maybe I’ll take a stab at the sleeve plackets. Or not, as I’d kind of like to hear what tips the other sewalongers have for them (and if any of the allegedly fabulous Negroni instructions for this area get passed on). I’ve only done continuous lap plackets before. Grum. Maybe I’ll prep the collar band or sew up the yoke (since I now know how to do that!)
I’m still up in the air over whether to bother with flat-felled seams on this one. On the one hand it’s a muslin and if I do need to make fitting changes it’d be much better to not have the seams felled. On the other hand, I could probably use as much practice as I can get my hands on, right? Blargh.
Tyo and her skull-print fabric
Just to keep me on my toes, though, Tyo decided to pull out the skull-print knit she picked out back in the fall. Apparently it needs to become a set of lounge pants. Unfortunately, I haven’t got a pattern for these. Well, how hard can it be to make one up? Just a narrow set of pantaloons, really, right? In a knit, no less.
Er. Well, I should’ve cut them wider. I forgot to add in width for the crotch. I should know better by
Tyo, cutting out her pants.
now. Sorry, kiddo. The good news is we’ll add in strips up the outside of the legs and they will look just fine. Intentional even. It’s a design feature, dontcha know? The bad news is she managed to cut one of the strips in half while she was cutting it out. Kid’s got talent, I tell ya. Hopefully there’s enough of the insert fabric (we’re using the remnant from my Kimono Lady Grey) to cut another one…
I did make her sew the crotch seam (on the serger, no less) and will be putting gentle pressure on her to do the rest herself as well. Well, as independently as Tyo does anything, anyway. I suspect the hemming and possibly the elastic casing will fall to me.
Can I blame it on the fact that I was trying to measure Tyo and “draft ” the pattern while cooking supper and supervising Syo, who decided she should cut up the chicken for last night’s supper*?
Oops. Too narrow.
Hmm, in hindsight, I think there probably is a kid’s shorts or karate-gi pattern in the basement that would have a basic, unfitted pants-type-pieces.
Aaargh.
*I hate to discourage her, as the only person in the house who seems to actually enjoy cooking. I have visions of my children turning into culinary geniuses who get home from school, throw me out of the kitchen, and emerge two hours later with a three-course sit-down meal. No? Hey, a girl can dream.
Tanit-Isis Sews 
ahhhhhh!!!! I didn’t realize you weren’t doing the negroni… hmmm. the pattern piece is odd looking – although I’ve never seen another cuff placket pattern piece before, so I don’t know if it’s UNUSUAL! Grrrr….
you know what? I just realized I forgot to trace/cut out the actual placket piece! LMAO! All the ones I’ve seen have looked rather the same, something like a tall, skinny house with a flat-roofed addition on the side (hmm, do you think I spend too much time looking at children’s drawings of houses?)
Oh, hey, here’s a nifty tutorial!. Looks like the DPC Shirtmaking book placket has a square top, not a peaked one, but otherwise it’s the same idea…
No lie, that’s what happened to me as a kid. Mom and I had a system. I cooked and she washed up after. I miss those days now that I’m married. I also did all the shopping after I was able to drive.
My mom and dad both worked late, and we lived in the country which meant no after school job for me. My job was keeping house, helping dad with the farm, and cooking. 🙂
Why did I ever get married again?
When my husband wasn’t working, he would cook supper and then after the kids were in bed, I’d wash up while he made lunches for the next day. It was divine. Now that he’s back working (12-hr days more often than not, ugh!) it doesn’t work so well, sigh…
I can’t decide which I hate more, though, cooking or doing the dishes afterwards…
I made Felicity cut out her circle skirt! I’ll probably be making her sew on her own blouse buttons. She has her own sewing machine and table but it seems we can’t get the right bobbins.. or something. In any case I’m hoping to get her machine functioning so that maybe she can start on her own projects. Possibly doll clothes?
You’re kids are cute and awesome.
I used to cook a lot when I was a teenager because my mother was the world’s worst cook… Something about necessity being the mother of invention perhaps.
I think gently encouraging her to do it herself is the best way. 🙂
The part about the “allegedly disappears with water marker” made me snort my drink. I sense a story about this. 😉 If this is the practice run, I’d skip on doing any sort of fancy seams this time around. Next time, if there’s no changes or anything, you can break out the fancy seaming techniques, but until then, I’d wait. 🙂
Yes, on the allegedly disappearing marker thing, here’s a tip: DO NOT press it. Heat seems to set some part of the dye in the color. I recently made two tops – one a cream jersey, and one a white linen shirt. The cream jersey has a couple of slightly beige small dots on the shoulders (you don’t press jersey much while sewing), and the white linen has dirty brownish marks all down the front placket and at the buttonholes, as well as a very clear horizontal line where I marked the waist at the front. Of course, I pressed it a lot and hot while making it. Blasted “disappearing” marker. Back to tailor tacks for me.
Yeah, I think I have heard similar warnings. I haven’t actually used it before, so this will be a test case. I don’t care too much for the muslin, anyway 🙂
Oh, I’m not a good cook, and dislike it too! I wish my kids showed more of an interest, whenever they do get the passion and whip up dinner for a few days it is like heaven!!
Good luck with your shirt placket! I reckon the hardest part is getting the top-stitching all smooth and perfectly even, the uneven layers within the placket can make this a little tricky. But I’ve made a few mens’ shirts now and it does get easier each time… 🙂
For kids’ elastic waist pants, my mother always takes a pair that fit in the right material (stretch or non-stretch) and turns one leg inside the other, then copies the crotch shape from the existing pants directly onto the fabric. As long as you make sure you allow for the waist being pulled in on your original, it works really well.