WEARABLE MUSLIN: Professor B.'s Size Small Shirt Pattern

I bought this blue shirting last Monday when I was in the Garment District getting my dickey buttonholes done.

It comes from a very well-loved, teeny-tiny fabric store many of you are familiar with.  I swung by since I needed shirting for my Menswear Sewing class final shirt project and it was on my way home.  Unfortunately, I found myself in one of those situations where, even though there was nothing that blew me away, I felt like I had to buy something: the owner knows me, he'd asked why I hadn't come by in so long -- I would have been embarrassed to leave empty-handed.  Has this ever happened to you in a fabric store -- perhaps this fabric store?

I liked the color of this fabric but I wasn't sure about the content.  What is this? I asked.  I was assured it was all cotton.  Well guess what...



It's definitely cotton-poly and not the kind of thing I'm interested in sewing with at this point; in retrospect I should have trusted my fingers.  I toyed with the idea of returning it, but at $4 a yard I couldn't really justify the effort; I'd find some use for it, surely.

Today I did.  I used it to make a muslin of the size Small shirt pattern Professor B. had me trace on Tuesday.  This shirt has a collar stand based on one by Canali, and as you can see, it's much more shaped than most standard collar stands.



The collar itself is also much more contemporary-looking than the one we used for the dickey.









I attached it using the method we learned in class.  One end looks great, the other protrudes a smidge.





The shirt itself fits big, but it's probably what passes for a size Small these days.  It fits Michael quite well, however, though it might benefit from fish-eye darts in back.  It still needs buttons and a finished hem.









This shirt also has one of those simple folded-under-twice plackets (like the dickey).  I don't mind that.



I know Professor B. has drafted shirts for Brooks Brothers; I don't know if that's what he does when he isn't teaching.  The only real problem I had with the pattern was extra length on one side of the sleeve.  Maybe he wanted us to ease the longer side into the shorter?  User error?



Making this shirt today reminded me how much harder it is to make a well-sewn shirt out of a cotton-poly blend.  A blend doesn't ease like 100% cotton so you have to be extra careful about puckering.  Needless to say, I used only faux flat-felled seams (serged and stitched down) -- I didn't want to invest too much time in this project.

Tomorrow perhaps I'll finally start Michael's crossword puzzle shirt.  He'll likely get this blue one too.

Have a great day, everybody!

Me writing today's post.