I decided to set myself a challenge ... to make a mens shirt. Firstly I don't normally make menswear garments and secondly I don't normally use commercial patterns as I normally make my own. This time was different, I decided I wanted to make my boyfriend a shirt for his birthday. So step one was to find a pattern which I found in a drawer back at my parents house and then step two was to choose the fabrics. I'd seen a fabric a while ago that I wanted to use, it was a denim with tiny specks of other colours in, but when I went to the shop they had run out. So off I went to Berwick street and the trusty Cloth House and these are the two fabrics I choose, a denium for the yoke and collar and a grey for the rest of the shirt. I also found some buttons at home in a nice brown colour to compliment the two fabrics. |
Then began the tricky part, using the commercial pattern. The last time I used a commercial pattern I made the baby girl next door a child's dress so I must have been around 14 maybe. There seemed to be so many extra points to match up and all the sizes on one pattern and pattern paper which was about to rip. Anyway it worked out really well in the end and I just tried to think as if it were my own pattern. |
To wrap the present I decided to do a 'G' (for George) in the denim fabric on the front of a nice brown wrapping paper. I'm quite pleased with the shirt, I like the composition of fabrics and the fit was good too. I always worry commercial patterns won't fit well but this one seemed to work.
I have dug out a few patterns for me to try for myself. I find it interesting working from the commercial patterns rather than my own to see how they do them and how they make up the garments as well. Obviously with my patterns I make them in the order I think is best but it's interesting to see the order the commercial patterns say.