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Pattern Review: Little Boy’s Shirt

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I was recently asked to make a wedding dress and  two little boys shirts with the dress. They are going to be made of the same fabric. The brides 2 boys are two and four. Since I don’t have much experience in sewing children’s clothing, I bought this vintage boy’s shirt pattern. It said the pattern size was 10. I really didn’t know what that meant but I bought it anyway without further research of vintage pattern sizing since it was on sale. When the pattern arrived, I opened up and tried to grade the size down according to her boys’ measurments. But, I noticed while doing this, that the size 10 fits a boy age 10, and trying to grade the pattern down to age 2 would take a lot of effort. Instead of fighting with that pattern, I looked for some little boy’s shirt pattern I could use for this project.

The pattern I found is from the Lily Bird Studio. She is on etsy, but I bought the pattern from her main site. It is called “Summer shirt for Boys” and it was $6.50, PDF pattern. Pretty reasonable. However, I had a lot of problems with this pattern. Unfortunately, I don’t think the pattern maker is very skilled in pattern making or knows much about sewing… For one thing, the sleeve pattern was created to cut on fold. As far as I know, I don’t think sleeve patterns, especially button down shirt patterns should be made to cut on fold. That’s because the front sleeve curve should be different from the back one. The front armhole is scooped deeper to allow forward arm movement, and the back should be less so. The length of the back armhole should be longer than the one of the front. So I was a bit confused by the fact it was supposed to cut on fold.

Also, the labeling was off. For example, the back yoke was labelled “back top” and collar stand was labelled “neck”. It just made me think the pattern maker has no idea about pattern making and perhaps it was traced from an already made shirt and made  into a PDF format? I had other problems with the instructions, but I won’t mention it here…

Well, despite my beef with this pattern and its instructions, the shirts turned out ok, I think. Here are some pictures.

One of the modifications I made was on the sleeves. I added a little slit detail and a button. Oh, another thing is that the seam allowances that were included in this pattern were 1/4″, all around. I thought this was kind of strange. I lengthened the sleeve length because I needed more than 1/4″ of seam allowances for sleeve hem to hem them (I changed to about 2cm).

When I finish these shirts, I put them on my ironing board. Then I had this gold YSL nail polish in my hand and somehow it slipped from hand and the cap opened up! It poured on one of the shirts! I freaked out but it was too late. I did some quick research on how to get nail polish off of fabric. It says to use nail polish remover but it did not work. So I had to make another shirt, thank God that I had extra fabric!!

By the way, fabric I used was a cotton blend with stripe pattern. It’s nice since it does not wrinkle much.

Golden Gloves to Hemline: Pt. 3 Remedial Class

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Happy New Year! Many men ring in the new year with drunkenness and debauchery, others with time spent in holy reflection at church. Andy however, sits in the Vivat Veritas lab sporting a nice new DUNCE cap! My first day of working through the bad boy Burda behemoth bible (Andy you English genius! Master of alliteration!) was a titanic and mythical success. Not only did I read the first few pages with no problem, I was even able to slyly and coolly write about my exploits into the sewing world. I was truly a King among men (or at least among Michael Korsesque men).

But then…Day 2. I tried to transfer my ever increasing knowledge of notions, sewing space and flat surfaced pattern drafting areas onto BS’s (both meanings are indeed meant) hands on with the sewing machine experience. I was set, I had time, I had a quite house with a sleeping baby, I was locked, loaded and ready to thread my bobbin and sew using both correct all-purpose needle and all-purpose zipper footses. Then, sadly then, I sat in front of the beast herself, that unforgiving task master known as Chie’s sewing machine and engaged in a battle I could not win. We struggled for hours, and I ended in tears having lost a life and death struggle to MAKE….THE…..DAMN…..THING…….WORK!!!!! Sadly, my years of education and my years of boxing training were no match for that vicious beast from Hell. I could not thread my bobbin correctly, nor could I thread the needle in an appropriate amount of time (it took me 30 minutes). I, for all my desire, could not even conceive of how the bobbin thread should run through the face plate. I drank heavily that night knowing that Chie would soon come and mercilessly mock, scorn and ridicule me. True to form my loving wife upon he arrival home proceeded to, with not an ounce of sympathy, do the “Andy is a moron” dance in conjunction with the “Andy is a moron” song. I now know the pain of generals defeated in war. It was a sad night.
Perhaps the most neutering experience is yet to come. Tonight, I will sit with Chie and have basic sewing setup skills taught to me. I am in the remedial class. I have failed day 2 and now must have a personalized program to catch me up. On tonight’s plate is 1)Bobbin threading, 2)Needle threading, 3)Pushing appropriate levers and buttons (whatever the hell that is officially called) and sewing my first straight/curved lines.
After much scolding, yelling, swearing and crying I have completed the assigned duties. You can all see photo evidence of my remedial class completion. Chie kept repeating  (while she hit me) “This is for your own good dummy!”
Ladies, will the shame and failure end? Those of you have learned how to sew, when does the joy begin? When, as Allison says, will I take pleasure in sewing spaces and when oh when will I  take fabric pieces and form them into something resembling a garment?
Off to bed now to lick my wounds and pray for an end to my misery!

Golden Gloves to Hemline: Pt. 1 Getting Started

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Hello my sisters in Vivat Veritas land. As Chie mentioned briefly in a previous post, I have decided to learn a little someting something about my wife’s world o’ sewing! God save us. I beg you not to mention this to anyone in my old hang outs or boxing gyms in Philadelphia.

Our first order of business is to crack open the Burdastyle book of which dear Chie is a contributor. On first glance, this doesn’t seem “sew” bad (hahahahahaha)! It says that “even if you’ve never even touched a sewing machine before this book can get you started.” I will test that assertion.

On the first page the book reads “Every time we see a great sewing space, we experience a certain voyeuristic thrill”…..I can honestly tell you that I have never had that thought, feeling or emotion when viewing Chie’s sewing space(a.k.a my bedroom), maybe I’ll have it later. Holy crap the next 5 pages are about the “Sewing Space”. I’m bored already. God please make this better! When do I get to sew myself a suit?

OK, first section done. I did come upon a part I do like, Alison’s  mantra of “Clear the Clutter”.  I’m all about that! The cleaner the room, the less stuff it has the better. I think I would be most happy in a house that had nothing in it but people, beds and a table. There was however, in that section a mention of the room’s “feng shui”. This statement made me sad and made the remaining North Philly man in me cringe a little.The book also used a lot of vocabulary that is completely lost on me, “notions” what the hell are those? “Transferring patterns” What the hell is that? Chie!!!! Come here and define this book for me. It is sad I need my ESL wife to tell me what this book written in English is supposed to mean.

Next is the section on tools you’ll need. I believe I have seen all of this crap in Chie’s feng shuied space. The book said that step one was having the right tools for the job. I’m feeling quite good about this part. The book has labeled pictures which is nice for a caveman such as myself who is still very happy to read ‘see and say’ picture books.

That’s all for this week. 10 pages down and 180 more to go. Chie’s bag ‘how to’ section in the back which leads me to believe that it’s fairly difficult.

I’ve learned excitingly little. I didn’t sew anything but I also did screw anything up or break any of Chie’s stuff, sew (hehehe) that’s a plus!  Next time I open ye ol’ Burdastyle book I will be holding the actual ‘sewing machine’ in the actual ‘sewing space’ surrounded by actual ‘sewing notions’ reading through sewing machine section.

I’ll be on Project Runway flirting with Heidi Klum and high fiveing Tim Gunn in no more than 5-6 months!