So, the lot of vintage patterns I shared in the previous post ended with Simplicity 6405 from 1974
and the note that I had found it completely lacking in charm and potential, unlike most of the other patterns in that lot.
But.
While waiting for the patterns to arrive, I prewashed some random pieces of cotton, including two I really wanted to mix together. The yardage amount seemed to make the most sense to use for a button-up shirt with a contrast yoke. The patterns I had on hand all had back yokes with no forward shoulder seams, so they would not be visible at all from the front. I felt like even making the collar and front band from the contrast wouldn't be enough, both in terms of distributing the print mix, and in terms of there even being enough of the main fabric to make the entire front.
What I needed, I realized, was a vintage Western-style shaped yoke shirt pattern. I could probably have hacked one from a yoke-less shirt pattern, but...wait...
This unappealingly earnest MISSES' PANTSUIT . . . DESIGNER FASHION...has a shaped front yoke...with just a few changes, could I make the kind of shirt I was thinking of?
Yes.
On the most basic level, the only changes I made were shortening the bodice and the sleeves, which I also made bell shaped instead of straight--and the only reason I made them bell shaped instead of straight was because I had enough fabric to do so. Honestly, they probably could be shorter, but they're completely acceptable as they are, and I have not ruled out making short straight sleeves if I use this pattern again.
On a higher level, though, I changed just about everything about the way I assembled this, to the point that there are no seam allowance edges visible inside
I made the yokes doubled, and did a burrito technique for the shoulder seams. I'm not sure if I'd done burrito before? I made a note so I wouldn't forget and start to sew things as I usually do.
There was a lot more room inside the burrito than I expected and it went well. So that hid all of the yoke seam allowances.
And it all got edge stitched and top stitched (the yoke seams were edge/top stitched before the burrito, and the shoulder seams, of course, after.)
I guess I did deviate significantly in regard to the front closure. The pattern calls for attaching a piece to the front to create the placket, and then the piece folds over to the inside as a facing that reaches the shoulder seam. I cut that placket piece so that it would create the front placket, then fold over to mirror that front placket shape instead of reaching all the way to the shoulder seam. I pressed it, right sides together, at the edge line, applied the interfacing, then pressed under the seam allowance equivalent on the front edge. The back edge was aligned with the edge of the shirt front, with the right side of the placket back edge against the wrong side of the shirt front.
That was sewn from the top almost to the bottom, where I folded the bottom edge of the shirt to the inside twice, total equivalent to the seam allowance (we'll pretend I remembered this part before sewing and didn't have to go back and pick out some stitching and figure out which way things should be folded before being stitched again.)
Oh, yeah, I also serged the edges (before realized that edge needed to be picked out) so there would be serging to help gauge the depth to turn the edge when hemming.
Next, I pressed everything involved in that just-sewn seam toward the center, folded the placket right sides together, and stitched at the seam allowance depth, careful not to catch the front seam allowance.
Then I clipped corners (and probably should have graded seam allowances--I was good when I started this project and did grade all the seam allowances involved in the yokes! Then I forgot I was doing that!)
Finally, I turned the placket right side out, with the pressed edge on top, ready to stitch down.
I did pin the pressed edge in place, trying to keep things lined up with the back seam, before edge stitching it down, followed by top stitching, edge stitching the opening edge, and then top stitching along there, too. Things didn't align perfectly along the back, but it's acceptable (and concealed)
Oh, and, where the print on the inside of the placket landed next to the print on the inside of the yoke, that thing I really don't like happened: the same print elements ended up on either side of the seam
My intense dislike of that happening is why I either take the time to pattern match across front openings, or add a contrast placket band. I'm so glad this random alignment happened inside the shirt.
I pressed the collar under on the un-interfaced side before sewing the halves together, then had to override every impulse I had to immediately stop stitch the collar as soon as I turned and pressed it (after fiddling with how much was trimmed inside the collar points.)
Since I knew the collar would be open--oh! I almost forgot: since the pattern design is for a notched collar, which I didn't want, I extended the width of the collar by 5/8", which may not quite have been enough, but I got it to work after only picking out and re-sewing four or five areas where things didn't lay smooth initially. And I sewed the raw edge to the inside of the neck opening, so that when I top stitched things would be lined up on the side visible when the collar is open. The pressed edge on the outside of the neck opening was pinned in place and caught in the edge stitching from the other side. I didn't take a photo--the alignment is not great, but it's also not very visible. Top stitching followed, of course.
I attached the sleeves (roughly) using the method shared by Male Pattern Boldness, so that...mostly...covered the seams there. Top stitching is inherent in that process, and I also edge stitched.
To finish the sleeves, I used the ruffler to gather the hem edges while the sleeves were still flat. I prepared the bias cut sleeve bands by pressing them in half, then pressing one edge to the inside. Then I stitched the band, unpressed right side of band to wrong side of sleeve, to most of the gathered edge, leaving an inch or so unstitched on each end. I honestly can't remember if I pressed it toward the edge at that point or if I just waited to wrangle things into place when I stitched through all layers along the pressed edges from the outside. I didn't do that edge stitching until after I sewed the sleeve/side seams, then sewed the seam on the band, and then finished sewing on the sleeve band.
I 100% did not worry about things aligning inside, beyond the idea of keeping things fairly neat so the finished width of the band would be somewhat uniform.
When it was time to sew the side seams, and I decided to do french seams just so there would be no visible seam allowance edges anywhere inside. With the edge stitching and top stitching, this meant I sewed each side seam four times.
Why, yes, since I was using the slightly heavier Saba C thread, this project did absolutely require a bobbin reload before getting to the end. At least the bobbin didn't run out in the middle of one of the visible stitches!
Time for the simple hem, then breaking out the buttonholer
While I do prefer to use buttons with two or four holes just so I can sew them on with the machine, I chose the shank buttons for this project because they seemed to have the spirit of the pearly snaps commonly used for vintage western shirts.
The pattern calls for six ¾" buttons for the original longer length. I have vaguely gathered that, if you're using smaller buttons, you should use more buttons, so I went with seven ½" buttons on this shorter-than-given version of the shirt.
I was worried that the placket would end up unpleasantly wide--it certainly looks extra wide on the pattern envelope--but I didn't think about that until after I cut the rest of the shirt. If I reduced the width of the placket, that would have reduced the width of the shirt, so I left the placket width as given (even though...yeah, I wasn't doing anything else about the placket in the way the pattern wanted...) I think it turned out OK.
And, now, finally, the back photo
Which means this write up is done! We'll see if I refer to it at any time in the future...
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