This Christmas I made two handmade presents. The first one is this men’s shirt for Filippo. I sewed it up with a Etro‘s cotton tartan remnant and bronze snap buttons.
The base model is Negroni Shirt by Colette Patterns that I altered with a series of stylistic and fit modifications to get the final model.
At first I made a muslin. After having checked the finished garment measurements on the pattern, I chose a smaller size than Filippo’s standard size. I chose a M and I lengthened the front and back bodice by 2,5 centimeters because Filippo is very tall.
Then I altered:
- the pockets’ shape (triangular instead of rounded)
- the collar: I changed the convertible collar provided in the pattern with a classic two-piece shirt collar (collar + stand collar). I used the collar shape of a David Mayer Naman’s shirt that Filippo has in his wardrobe and I followed two tutorials on Male Pattern Boldness blog: tutorial-1 and tutorial-2.
- the shirt front: I eliminated the two front facings and I sewed a new facing for right shirt front and a button placket for left shirt front. I followed this tutorial, again on Male Pattern Boldness blog.
Furthermore I made other modifications on sleeves, yoke and cuffs, getting them narrower or wider as needed for a perfect fit.
Once made all the final modifications, I trasfered them on the paper pattern and I cut the tartan fabric. I followed this tutorial to match plaids. I cut outer yoke, cuffs and pockets flaps on the bias and the inner part of these pieces on the straight grain, as suggested in the tutorial.
I used a walking foot to sew the shirt up. This helped me to keep the stripes perfectly lined up. This tutorial on Cucicucicoo blog has been very helpful.
To sum up, it has been a long and quite complex sewing project, but I’m very satisfied of the result and very happy that Filippo loves it!
