Flannel Pull-over Shirt

HUZZAH! This was one of those projects that had been in my mind for months before I was able to complete it. It all began with the shirt I made for Peter's Han Solo Costume last year. Within a month or so of making tat shirt and posting it on my blog, I received four different requests for shirts all based on the that one. David, in particular, wanted one made of flannel.

There's not much out there in the way of men's shirt patterns, let me tell you. You can get a big boxy pattern or a narrow fitted pattern. There are few stops in between - nowhere near as many options as for, say, a woman's dress pattern. Anyway, given that all of the men who approached me about shirts are all slim and that slim-fitting shirts are the sartorial norm here in Vancouver, I purchased Vogue 8759 (linked above). I made one of the shirts with very few alterations for a friend of mine just to test the fit and practice my skills.

At some point, I was in a fabric store and looked at the plaid flannels. I knew I wanted something of good quality (nothing like those printed flannels that are so stiff and thin) and somehow the plaid had to look like something my husband would wear. Well, this yarn-dyed plaid about lept off the shelf at me! That David of mine, he likes to keep things subtle. And he can wear earth tones wothout looking ill, so this was a good choice.

I started with a muslin, checking to see how much ease I needed to add in the back and how long the neck opening needed to be to have it pull over easily. I had already blended the panels into one back piece, and then I needed to add more for elbow room. Then it was on to cutting out (and matching) the plaid. I did a bit of sewing and a bit of pinning and head him try it on again.

It wasn't easy to decide what to do with all that extra fabric. There was just too much for one box pleat. and I even felt that there was too much for two shoulder blade pleats. I took a couple of days to notice the shirts the men around me were wearing (one Sunday in particular I approached every man at church who was wearing a woven shirt and asked if I could look at the construction on the back). In the end, I decided to go with two pleats over each shoulder blade. This way I could try to line up the plaid at the center back of the collar and the back with the center of the bias-cut yoke.

Once that was decided, it was just a matter of plugging away and finishing the job. Again, I used plackets from David Page Coffin's Shirtmaking. I think if I were to do this again, I would make all of the plackets (sleeves and neck) narrower and make the ends of the plackets shorter.

Hey, speaking of plackets, Can you see what I did wrong with the sleeve plackets? I decided that no one but I would notice the error. It was a good learning experience! Ha!

All in all, it looks pretty good on him. He has worn it once every week since the weather turned cold. That's a winner in any book! He could also wear this shirt untucked. It has vents on the side seams (the construction of which I just made up as I went along).

Looking pretty pleased with his new shirt, eh? Pardon the indoor photos. It was a dark and dreary day, but he was wearing the shirt, so the photos had to be taken!