Tuesday, June 24, 2008

A Study in Speed

This was a shirt I made for my grandmother's birthday in april. I know its a little over due but I wanted to post it anyway. Prior to her birthday she had asked me to hem a summer shirt for her. I decided to copy her shirt in a nicer fabric for her birthday present. However I only had about four hours before I had to be at her birthday dinner. I made the pattern, washed the fabric, cut, and sewed the whole shirt without being late for dinner. I definitely cut some corners but it won't fall apart and I doubt anybody but you guys would ever notice.




Notice the "Cut in one" collar stand. I've seen these on a few shirts I've liked but its crazy how much faster they are.


French seams are actually quite fast considering that serging them would require at least as many passes through a machine and a change of machines. Also note that I never waste time trimming my french seams I just sew an 1/8" seam allowance the first time and 1/4" the second.

4 comments:

hannah said...

It's so amazing to me that you did all that in four hours -- I'm going to remember it when I'm at Nicolas' slowing draping and re-draping the same dress, trying for perfection. Sometimes being a perfectionist is a detriment.

hannah said...

i was so busy being impressed by your speed the first time i read this i didnt even read the whole thing....did you do the undercollar on the bias and 1/8" smaller ever without the collar stand? And how does it lie any different?

Carly said...

I didn't really do either of those things. When I make the collar on a shirt I will often just line the uppercollar and the undercollar up in such a way that the undercollar is 1/8" past the upper collar and sew it down. This way i don't have to take the time to trim it. On nicer shirts I will take the time to trim and grade all my seam allowances so it would get dealt with then anyway. As for how it lies? It lies as well or better than the average store bought shirt. That is as much as the average person knows. The shirt I would make for you would take me week. It would however be worth the time because you would notice the details.

... And you did read the whole thing I just went back and picked out the things i wanted you to notice after your last call.

Jessie said...

I was just remarking about those "all-in-one" collars the other day, they're funny and great! It's funny, I've made so many button-downs for school that I can now crank them out in no time. It's the sewing-on of the buttons that's so tedious!