Cowboy Shirt

In my last post I showed you my Tangerine Jeans and promised a Western Style Shirt to go with them - well here it is.

The completed outfit worn together, which I am fairly happy about, threw up some design challenges that were solved by the SFD community and by Glenda. I was very grateful for all the suggestions as to how best to do the yoke and as you see from the photo above it turned out as a neat, clean finish.

I took the comment by Loren to have a shoulder seam and to Glenda to cut the fronts in one and overlay the front yoke piece. Both of these ideas worked and created the finish I was after, thank you.

I cut the fronts with the yoke attached [making sure I matched the stitching line on both] and then cut the yoke piece again from the tangerine fabric. I should have taken more photos of the process but I always find it hard to stop when sewing, especially the tricky bits. 

The yokes were easy to press the seam allowance under because it was a stretch fabric and handled well for the edge stitching to put them in place. I used a Frixion Pen to mark the exact placement and I did this using a template I made out of card from the yoke pattern using the stitch line.

Having already attached the back yoke I then rolled the fronts and the back right up tightly so I could stitch the shoulder seams putting right sides together with the bulk of the shirt inside. Once turned right side out again the result is a clean finish with all seams hidden inside.

I then made the collar and stand and attached this to the shirt. 

So far so good but the next bit proved even more tricky and I'm not sure I got the best result here. The sleeves. All started well with the placket made out of the same floral fabric as I didn't want this to be in the contrast fabric and detract from the designer cuffs.

The busy fabric didn't need matching perfectly but still didn't show much so I was happy with that.

I set the sleeves in using the flat shirt method and then used a flat felled seam for the sides and sleeves. Now to add the cuffs.

I used the same design as the front yoke but had to sew them on the opposite way to what I would do normally. Instead of right sides together I attached the inside of the cuff [right side of fabric] to the inside of the sleeve. This was so that I could lay the outer cuff over the sleeve and edge stitch it down as I had the front yokes. The problem was the extra width in the sleeves as they tapered which seemed fine when I was sewing them together but now I see the photos I think the sleeves don't look quite right. Next time I will make the cuffs wider at the pointy end to accommodate more of the extra width of the sleeve at that point and maybe taper the sleeve to be more slim at the wrist end so there isn't as much difference between the cuff and the sleeve. I hope this explains what I mean but you can see in the pictures that they don't look as smart as they should.

I intend to do some research on how RTW cope with a western cuff but we don't have too many here in the UK for me to study...

I wondered if I should put some cowboy style embroidery on the yokes and also a contrast buttonband but I decided not to do either in the end and felt less was more in this case....

I've added a few more shots here to show rear views and without the belt. Writing a blog and showing photos is an excellent way to self critique but I don't want to overdo that as probably no one seeing me will know what went wrong!!! 

Only you. 

 

Thank you for reading.

Tangerine Jeans

Having teased you with a brief view of my jeans in my last post I can now show you the garment in all its glory [!!]

First of all the fabric. This is a stretch cotton tangerine fabric and was a bargain piece from Abakhan in Hanley, Staffordshire, bought on a recent visit to the area. I asked the lady you see in the picture if it was alright to take a photo and she said yes but ran behind the shelves and ducked down out of site so as not to be in the photo herself. Unfortunately she popped her head up just as I snapped!! She was a lovely, helpful member of staff and had a great smile so I'm glad I caught her after all. But just take a look at this store!!! It's so hard to choose or maybe it's not the choosing but knowing when to stop!!

The cotton flower piece that I used for the pocket bags was from a single sheet bought from a charity shop in Reigate for just £2.50. There is enough for a shirt that I will blog about when it's finished but the colour matches perfectly. I'm thinking of maybe a western style shirt to go with the jeans and then perhaps I should take up line dancing!!!

I embroidered the back pockets from a stock design and top stitched in a toning brown using the top thread double and using a straight stitch at 4.5 length.

This is the front fly showing the belt loops, pocket fronts and buttonhole.

Below shows the inside front view.

 These jeans are so comfortable to wear and the fabric is quite lightweight but soft to touch. I am very pleased with the fit [SFD jeans blueprint again]. I bought just over 2 metres but only used about 1.5 metres to make them so I reckon they cost me about £4.00 in total. BARGAIN.

A shirt for me and trousers for Hubby

There seems to have been a lot going on lately and although I've managed to do a lot of sewing as well I haven't been taking photos so didn't get round to blogging as soon as I finished each item as I usually do.

Anyway with lots to blog about I took pictures this morning and here are some of the garments.

First up is a black and white shirt that I made to go under my black suit. This was to wear for my Father-in-Law's funeral two weeks ago during which I delivered the eulogy on behalf of his two sons so I needed to feel confident on the day.

Not much to say about this as I have made the pattern up several times and I had the fabric in my stash. I also had these black and white buttons which matched perfectly. The sleeves look a bit long in this photo but the fabric is quite drapey and I wanted the cuffs to show under the sleeves of my suit so they actually worked well.

In addition I made an everlasting scarf with the remnants in case it was raining outside the Crematorium and I needed to cover my head but it wasn't needed on the day. However, as you see here it made a useful item to wear with other outfits in the future. Very easy and quick to sew.


Next up is a pair of trousers I made for my husband. I've asked him to wear them so I can take a photo to show you but he keeps making excuses so I decided to take photos anyway. He chose the fabric while we were in Nazare, Portugal earlier this year and for the inside of the front and back pockets I used material from a couple of his Dad's shirts before they were thrown out so he has a reminder of him when he wears them.

 The back welt pockets didn't go too well and this is a skill I must practice on to perfect. You might also notice that the waistband seam isn't central but he would always wear a belt so this won't show. I'm not sure what went wrong here except that the extra bit under the front fly extension seems to have thrown out the measurements. Again I must try harder next time.

He is very tall and has long legs but finds it hard to get RTW trousers that have the right length but not a huge waist. I probably make the waistband look big in this photo but it's just the way I'm holding them. At least these fit him perfectly and I am mostly happy with them and have noted where I need to make changes for next time.

My next blog will show you the apricot jeans that you may have noticed in these photos and I also made a very quick polo neck T-shirt so look out for my next publication.