Shirt collar-palooza and the 1939 men's shirt

Good morning, shirt mavens and others!  Here at Male Pattern Boldness, we're busy.  So busy in fact that my staff is demanding time-and-a-half and I may just have to give them those seven and a half cents they keep singing about.  That or outsource to China.

While I'm waiting for our February Sew-Along to begin formally, I'm working on a few other shirt projects.  Last night I cut my fabric for my Dubarry 1939 shirt pattern.  In my head I'm seeing this...

While the sorry pre-dawn reality is this...

From another angle (Thanks, Michael!)...

But I digress.   I have all the pattern pieces for my shirt cut and ready for stitching.  What about fitting, you ask?  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.



As I mentioned yesterday, this pattern has no printed markings, just holes and slits.  



This will be a gusset -- my first.



This 1939 Dubarry shirt has a removable collar that buttons onto the collar band (collars wear out and get grimy and you wouldn't want to have to replace the whole shirt back then) and I'm wondering if I should bother with it.  I may just go for it, in the spirit of historical research.   Thoughts?

There was a little collar-related confusion in yesterday's comments (which I contributed to) I'd like to clear up, with the help of Wikipedia. 

The shirt we'll be making together in the Men's Shirt Sew-Along has a camp collar, also known as a convertible collar.  This is a collar most frequently found on men's casual shirts (think bowling or Hawaiian shirts) and most women's shirts.  When the shirt is open at the neck, the collar spreads flat, like this. 

Can you see that there is no collar stand?

These are men's shirt patterns with a camp collar:

With the top button closed, it can be hard to tell whether there's a collar stand or not.  And that's stand.  According the David Coffin, the band is what one finds on the neck of a shirt with NO collar. (I just learned that today.)

Traditionally, men's dress shirts have collar stands (as do many less formal shirts).  This one is light-colored and easy to see.

This is a groovier version.

Sometimes when looking at shirt patterns, it can be difficult to tell what sort of collar the shirt has.  Generally the back of the pattern envelope will describe the type of shirt collar or show a drawing of it.  It's a good idea to consult the pattern description first if you have any question about what sort of shirt collar you're getting.  Is there a collar stand piece?

Shirt collars can be drafted easily, however, and one of the things we're going to do in the Sew-Along is draft a collar stand and collar for the camp-collared Negroni, and you can make either version.

Later today, take a look at a men's RTW shirt closely -- we're going to doing a lot of that in the weeks ahead -- and examine what kind of collar it has.  Is it a camp collar or a collar with stand?  Do you have a preference?  I've made both kinds and I admit to preferring a collar stand.  If you have a longish or a thin neck, a higher collar is more flattering, imo. 

Meanwhile, friends, an update: our Sew-Along Flickr group is growing fast (30 members!) and there are already photos posted of shirt patterns people are using as well as some discussions.  If you'd like to join the group, shoot me an email (peterlappinnyc at gmail dot com) and I'll send you a Flickr invite. 

That's it for today, folks.  I am eagerly awaiting my Negroni pattern in the mail (If you get yours, look it over carefully, read the instructions, but please don't cut yet.)  but have plenty to keep me busy in the meantime.  The fun is just beginning. 

As always, if you have shirt-related questions, just ask.  (And we will be some addressing fit issues, btw.)

Have a great everybody!

What's seven and a half cents?  A heck of a lot!