Vogue 8912, Double Collar Shirt

I went to a talk on sustainability back in May and I've been thinking about it a lot since. I think I can definitely put myself forward as a shining example of slow fashion. I've been less and less interested in what Primark has to offer over the past few years, whether thats because their stock is crap, my tastes have changed as I've got older or because I have just generally been more aware of wastage and the ethics of fashion, I'm not sure. I'm guessing its a bit of a combo of the three. Also, making, by its very nature, can often be a slowowowow process, but a slowowowow process that lets me replace the instant gratification of buying, with the steady satisfaction of creating. To satiate those shopping urges though, going to the talk did confirm that it's totally okay to buy buy buy from charity shops and also hey take a look on Vinted at all this premium 2nd hand stuff people just want shut of. Phew!!

I was already a big fan of charity shops. The record shop I worked at between the ages of 15 and 22 (and still every now and then) is surrounded by them, so lunch breaks were often a bit of a thrift-fest. I found the pattern for this shirt on a trawl round the charity shops in Hillsborough in Sheffield. There was quite a stash of vintage Vogue patterns in the Sheffield Cats Shelter shop, and I fell instantly in love with the babe teaming chunky chainy gold belt with monochrome 80s shirt with double collar. 

The pattern was towards the larger sizes on the scale, so I was a little bit reluctant to buy it for fear of never committing to making the fit alterations. Also as I mentioned earlier this year, I do have a nervousness when it comes to vintage patterns - Will everything I have learnt about alterations still follow the same rules with a pattern designed before I was even born? Despite my fears, I took her to the counter with a bundle of other patterns, because sustainability is buying secondhand, and I think she was winking at me. 

She sat in my 'patterns' box for a few months. She made a few appearances on my Insta stories then I'd pop her back in the box. I was on the lookout for a suitable black fabric that would behave well, that I could team with the left over white slinky cotton (?) that I made my tuxedo shirt with. 

In July I found this stripy fabric in Abakhan Manchester. The monochrome, the neutral tones, the drape of it... It was instantly very me, and although I had been looking for a plain fabric I knew that this might be the one to help me transform into the Vogue lady. 

Fastforward a few months, I've put off making a start on the shirt because I know I'm going to need to make a toile and I know alterations are faffy. I used an old piece of curtain lining and it became clear that the arm holes were much too low, resulting in too much fabric in the underarm, a general feeling of suffocation and a difficulty in moving. The alteration turned out to be quite simple, but not one I had done before. Due to the sizing of the shirt, I worked out that the underarms should be about an inch higher than then were, so I took this inch out all the way across the front piece- ensuring the chunk I creased out was above the arm notches and below the dots for matching the sleeves. I replicated this on the sleeve head, following the same rules then filling out the curve where there was misalignment on the front and back of the sleeve. To match this on the back piece, I took an inch out across the back. 

The next tweak had to be on the double collar pieces. One inch to come out of them, as taking this from the front had of course altered the neckline. I think I probably solved a gape there that I hadn't even identified was going to be a problem (yay). 

I changed the facing piece to match the new neckline (yep, you guessed, I took out that magic inch) and then I was good to get assembling the real deal. 

I know I followed rules, but it still seemed like a fluke when it all came together and the pieces matched up where they should. I made sure I cut all the striped fabric as symetrically as possible. Then that double collar! Again, the symmetry! I absolutely love it - I do feel like I owe a lot to that cream fabric doing exactly what it was told. Everything felt quite straight forward to assemble. I even enjoyed gathering those sleeves into the cuffs (hello volume!). Oh yeh, more about those cuffs while we're here? They really are the most curious kind of shape before they become 3D. I strongly encourage drawing those button hole markings on clearly, as accurate button and buttonhole placement at the final hurdle is what really seals the deal. 

So the bottom half of the cuffs flip back over and then they are held in place by cufflinks. I'll admit I have never owned a pair of cufflinks, so I put a shout out on the family chat and my Dad came good with these from somewhere within the family archives. He supplied another pair or two as well - turns out what is great about cufflinks is you can just keep swapping them to match any outfit or occasion. I have no idea why they fell out of fashion. Just as a reminder to myself if I make this pattern again though- as the underside flips up, it may be worth treating the inside as the topside when stitching in those buttonholes, just to ensure the visible side is the neater side of stitching. No real drama though, as my machine is much more buttonhole savvy than my last one was and the cufflinks are distracting enough to guide the eye away from any wiggly underside threads. 

The pattern calls for shoulderpads - I'd like to try some as again, they aren't something I've really played about with, and I do see how they could create a powerful silhouette for this girl. I didn't include any, so I think if I made the pattern agian I would want to narrow the armholes a little by taking no more than a cm off around the top. 

I love the symmetry, I love the double collar, I love the cuffs and the cufflinks. I love the fabric and the contrast panels. I love my button choice - these cute gold ones from the local market stall. I love that the hem was just straight forward and er, straight, cause I always tuck in anyway so who really gets to see if I've done a sweet curve or not? I love how much I feel like the Vogue lady when I've got this on. Turns out this one was another job-interview winner, but I was on such a power-surge I turned the danm thing down. Wonder what damage I'd do with shoulder pads? 

Happy sewing days. 

x

Location: Cortworth House, Wentworth

Currently listening to: The Lost Souls, AFI

McCalls M7575 x M7980, Cowboy Shirt

Vinted fabric skort all ready to go for our last gig, I came a bit unstuck as to what to wear on top. Cue contents of wardrobe exhumed, and bedroom floor looking like I'd been burgled. In the end, a quick trip to the charity shops in Hillsborough found me a perfect stretch tee with cinching side ties (see previous blog post for combo), but the crisis left me wanting to be better prepared for next time. 

This got me thinking about what features my perfect gig shirt should have, and I came up with the below:

• Shoulders-> because as much as I love a strappy vest, when you're halfway through your set and sweat-sticky, guitar strap and sweaty shoulder can lead to increased friction, and this can make guitar swinging less effortless. In general, Shoulder + Fabric + Guitar strap = Reduced friction (+ better dance moves)
• Sleeveless -> Less sleeves = More movement + Less sweat
• Cropped -> Because I don't work out every day to hide my waist, and as much as I love tucking in a shirt for work, I don't want to have to be worrying about my shirt hem escaping my waistband mid-way through a track. Also less fabric, again = Less sweat
• Easy to get off-> Because after the show I'm sweaty, and don't want to have to wrestle my way out of my outfit 
• Black -> Because I've tried wearing other colours on stage, and regardless of how good I think they look at the time, whenever I look back on the photos I think 'Why on earth did I wear that?'
  
  
  

So with this in mind, and fabric left over from my Vinted re-fashion, I started to dream up a gig shirt that would team up with my skort and tick the above boxes. 

I had enough Vinted fabric left over for panels of some kind, and with this Aztec-type embroidery, it made sense to utilise it as a statement yoke on a cowboy-style shirt. With no front-yoke or piping expertise in my arsenal, I knew I needed the help of a good pattern. I chose the McCalls M7980 as I have good experience in the past using McCalls shirt patters, and this one had the double whammy of being both suitible for men or women. I got the pattern for my birthday and began tracing it off soon after (wehay for Birthday annual leave). 

Once I'd traced the pattern pieces, I thought it a good idea to compare the size to a shirt pattern that I know fits well. Come to the stage M7575, my trusty old friend. What became very obvious straight away was the M7980 was much larger, and featured no bust darts. The plan all along was to knot up the front at the waist so it sat cropped on me, and the extra length would be helpful for this, but the bagginess would lead to likely gaping arm holes (I planned to finish the arm holes with bias-binding instead of inserting sleeve so that I could be sleeveless as planned). 

The resolution for me was clear, I would cut the M7575 pattern, omit the sleeves, draft front yoke pieces by using the M7980 as reference, and extend the front piece so that the placket could be better tied at the waist. Without any real plan for how long to extend the placket, I made the shirt front pattern piece 10cm longer, adding a curve to omit extra fabric and make more of a tie-shape. I extended the placket pattern piece by 10cm to match this, and will admit it was by total fluke that the front piece of the shirt graded out to a point so nicely. 

I made a slight change to the collar piece, making the collar points a little more, er pointy. I have had these collar tips in my stash for how long?! Feels good to finally install them onto a well-deserving shirt. 

All my life, I have thought that the front yoke on a cowboy shirt was attached to the bottom half (like a traditional back-yoke) of the shirt via a seam, NOT that it was a piece installed over the top like a patch. It all makes perfect sense now after thinking about it, and reading some hand hints on the Sneum Shirts Website, which explained the yoke was to reinforce and add durability to the areas of the shirt likely to get worn out when yipikaye-ing your way around the wildwest on horseback. 

So with yoke pieces cut perfectly symmetrically (utilising the centre back seam of the origanal skirt on the back yoke piece), it was time to investigate something else new to me: Piping. 

I bought this silvery piping from my go-to stall at the Sheffield Market (is there nothing they don't have?! I don't think they have ever let me down!). Initially I was looking for something more of a satin-sheen grey, and was a little worried this silver was going to look a bit fancydress, but I think it's come out really well, adding just the right amount of pizazz to link up the silver collar tips to the buttons, to the white embroidery and the glammy beads in the matching skirt. 

I enjoyed applying the piping. I was nervous, but with the use of the zipperfoot and the changeable needle position on my machine, I was able to get the stitch line really close to the er, pipe(?) and the result looks really effortless. The back was a little harder, as the back yoke is faced with another piece of fabric, and when you attach this you can't see the edge of the piping at all. The machine does a lot of the hard work though, with it naturally using the raised edge as a guide. At least it was a nice straight line- the front pieces did take a little more concentration to get around the curves, especially while trying to ensure complete symmetry! 

I used the exact same linen to make the plain areas on the shirt as I used on the skort. I found out at hem time that linen hems curves like an absolute dream! The hem is quite curved at the side seams, and the new front tie piece I drafted also curved, but linen has magic powers and seemed to enjoy being told what to do. 

It behaved nicely when attaching the collar too. I was slightly worried the interfacing in the collar and placket would make the shirt a little tooo sturdy and not relaxed enough, and it does feel a little more bulky than other shirts in my collection, but I think this was required to help support the weight of the heavier, embriodered yoke pieces. With a bit of wear any rigid areas will loosen up nicely. 

I added bias binding to the arm holes and slipstitched this down by hand so the seam line wasn't visible from the inside. I managed to buy the exact amount of binding, down to the millimeter (hmm someone measured the raw edge of the arm hole not the stiching line before going to the shops....), which I think stressed me out a bit when attaching the second band and maybe caused me to stretch it into the arm hole more than I should have. The back armhole kicks out a little bit. I think this gape could have been avoided by taking a little more of the seam allowance off before attaching the binding (I took off 1cm, allowing for the 1.5cm seam allowance which would have been used if inserting the sleeve). I think due to the sturdiness of the fabric, when I first put the shirt on this gape was a little more noticeable than after I'd had it on all day on one of the hottest days of the year and the fabric had started to relax into my body. 

I wondered if the buttons were a little understated against the jazzy silver binding, but there was nothing with any more character grabbing my attention at the market stall. Once they were on though, I thought they worked quite well with the yoke pieces, adding a bit of a nod to work-wear style (or practical wear for lassooing cattle on your ranch if that so happens to be your line of work). 

The buttonhole function on my machine played nice, I had my heart in my throat as this was the final hurdle and arguably the one most likely to cause unreversable damage. It was essential the button at the bustline lined up exactly with the start point of the piping either side of the placket... the most central and visible area of the shirt! It was a pretty hot day in the studio, that got increasingly hotter during buttonholing! Hey, my fray-stop glue dried pretty quick though! 

The shirt is a winner. I had toyed with the idea of making the back piece shorter so there was less fabric to accomodate when the front is knotted, but in the end I kept the length, as when the front is not knotted, the shirt can still be tucked into jeans and function as something slightly more formal. The additional length I added to the front for ties also doesn't look too weird if I'm wearing it buttoned up and untucked either. Options! 

I was absolutely delighted to get this combo all stitched up before the Chris Isaak gig in Manchester this July. The man himself is known for his western style tremolo and his fantastic suits, so it absolutely made sense to debut the two-piece at his show. It seemed to do the trick - I was invited up to dance on stage with him for Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing!!! He is my ultimate fave, so it was a total honour to dance with the king in a me-made that had so much 'me' and considered design in it. Check out the Youtubes below and see if you can spot me! 

x

Location: Holme Lane, Sheffield
Currently listening to: Loser, Tame Impala