Men's Shirt Sew-Along 5 -- Collars and Cuffs and (belch) Interfacing

Goodness, is it Saturday already?

I hope you didn't think you were going to get the weekend off like on those other blogs.  I suppose you'll expect me to sing Do Re Mi and put on marionette shows, too.  (I would be open to a play clothes-from-curtains sew-along, however.)  Let's focus, people!

OK, today we're going to interface and do some more sewing.

Our goals today are:

1. Interface what needs interfacing

2. Stitch our cuffs together

3.  Craft our collar

1. There's not a whole lot that needs interfacing in the Negroni shirt pattern -- top of cuffs, top of collar, and facings. 

NOTE: If you've read the "Learn from my mistakes!" section of the Flickr group, you know that I used my shirt fabric to interface my facings and they came out a bit too heavy  (my muslin fabric is similar weight to quilting cotton).  The outer edges were also too thick when I enclosed them.  Keep this in mind.  You may not need to interface your facings.  It really depends on the weight of your fabric.  Regardless, there's a tutorial on how to get a clean finished edge on the facings using interfacing and avoid having to fold the edge over twice and stitch.  You can find it here.

I'm not going to go into detail about interfacing, a topic I've covered recently.  If you want to fuse, fuse, if you want to use sew-in or self fabric, do that.  Do what works and if you're not sure what works, experiment.  One rule that seems to apply is that cheap fusibles aren't worth the effort.  How do you know if yours is a cheap fusible?  When in doubt, avoid, perhaps.

I attached the interfacing (in this case, another layer of my fabric) to the facing by stitching at 1/8", safely within the seam allowance.  If you're trying this and the layers are not stitching together neatly, try a good dry pressing first or a walking foot.  Or -- heaven forbid -- hand baste.   As you know, there is a tendency for our presser foot to push the top layer of fabric toward us and the feed dogs to pull the bottom layer away, resulting in some mismatching of layers.  A walking foot can help to eliminate or reduce this problem if you're experiencing it (I didn't with my treadle.).



I used black woven interfacing for the outer layer (the visible layer facing out on the completed shirt) of my collar.  I have come to the conclusion that this interfacing sucks and am dumping it all.  It's too stiff.



Now I stitch my collar pieces together, RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER around three sides (see instructions).  The collar has a normal 5/8" seam allowance.   After stitching, I trim the seam allowances.  Trim close to the corners and clip rounded edges up to but not beyond the stitch line: we're going to be turning the collar right side out.  A wooden point turner can help here but if you don't have one you can improvise with a letter opener.  Like the pocket flaps, we want to shape the corner over the point turner, not jab the turner into the corner.  Jab hard enough and that point turner is going to poke right through guaranteed.







Now press.  Remember that we want the edge of the top collar to go an itty bit beyond the edge of the under collar.   Since I'm using a different fabric for the bottom (and it's red!), this is essential.  I find it helps to press with the top collar on top and make sure you can't see any of the seam as you press along the edge.  You might have to tug a bit on the bottom layer to pull it away.  Whatever it takes.



Now topstitch neatly at 1/4".  Here's my completed collar:





The side you left open can now be stitched closed, just keep the stitching at less than the  5/8" seam allowance you'll use when you attach collar to shirt.

3. Finally, let's stitch our cuffs together.  I interfaced the outer cuff with another layer of fabric, stitching in the seam allowance at 1/8", just as I did for my facings.
 

Now stitch inner and outer layer, with RIGHT SIDES together, using a 3/8" seam allowance. 



BUT FIRST, FIRST FIRST, turn the top edge of what will be the OUTSIDE of the cuff (this will be the interfaced piece if you interfaced), down 3/8".  You'll realize why this is important when we attach the cuffs to our sleeves.



You should end up with something like this.



Sew-Alongers, fence-sitters, and rubber neckers, that's it for today.  As always I am here to answer your questions and reply to your comments.  We're going to start putting this baby together tomorrow.

As always, work at your own pace and don't beat yourself up if it your results aren't perfect.   We're here to learn.

Happy -- and successful -- sewing, everybody!