Shifting gears from the work of app development. I have decided to sew a man’s dress shirt. I have been inspired to do this by my partner Susan Tiner at and also by Male Pattern Boldness. In our discussion of clothing issues Susan was complaining that there was nothing “off the rack” that would fit her. I commiserated with the problem as the standard men’s dress shirt has never fit me very well. I used to consider myself some sort of deformed character a la Shakespeare’s Richard III. My principle issues being a large neck and long arms means the average shirt is unlikely to fit. For many years I gave up and wore polos and shorts. Living the the SF Bay Area this is reasonable most of the time.
Finding the pattern:
Having decided to try sewing my own shirt it was time to find a pattern. Take a look a VoguePatterns.com. Vogue has eight men’s patterns and no shirts. Butterick men’s is really sad. McCall’s men’s is better but not very exciting. Kwik Sew does have a men’s dress shirt pattern however, it does not have french cuffs.
I searched online for men’s shirt patters with french cuffs. I found one from 1952, a size 16.5in (Neck)
Now, I have an 18in neck, but since this is the only pattern available I will need to modify it to fit me.
Sew the shirt:
As far as sewing goes, I have sewn things like pillow cases, and table runners but nothing complex like a dress shirt. The instructions look intimidating.
To start of the process I cut the pieces and basted them together to see if the fit was even close. In the bodice it was. I would need to adjust the yoke, the sleeves, and the neck. The instructions showed where to add fabric for the sleeves. I am on my own for the neck and yoke. More about those adjustments later.
Having the pattern worked out I cut the pieces, Back, front(2) and the yoke.
Step 1 shows the following:
Step 1
The instructions for step 1 are:
They talk about a “flat seam”:
I am going to skip the interfacing except in the collar and the cuffs later. I am going to start with joining the back to the yoke and instead of gathers near the center I will put in pleats about 6in to the left and right of center.
This photo show the pinned pleat of back to yoke.
The next photo shows the completed back-yoke with the flat seam. I did the front sides to the back and the front to the yoke the same way.
The Results:
Next, The front left band ( that strip that the button holes are in) and the undelap-overlap on the sleeves.
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