Sep 30, 2018

Style Maker Fabrics Fall Blog Tour -- My Color Blocked Shirt REVEAL!


I was excited to be invited to participate in the Style Maker Fabrics Fall Blog Tour this year -- I love this kind of challenge and it's always fun to see what other people make.

What Michelle Stoffel, the owner, has done -- brilliantly -- is to create a fall fabric collection.  (You can view it here. )  There's a video of each fabric being described and handled (it's long but VERY informative) so you can really get a sense of what each fabric feels like before purchasing.  Naturally you can also order swatches.

I wanted to try my hand again at color blocking. I chose a mix of solid cotton chambray flannels in three colors (blue, black, and brown), along with a touch of brown and mustard flannel plaid (cut on the bias and interfaced to prevent stretching).  The plaid is actually quite beefy and would be perfect for a shirt or shirt jacket.  The chambrays are as soft as cashmere and require gentle handling when sewing.  (These aren't the stiffer chambrays one associates with denim or denim-look shirts.)  I recommend stay-stitching the neckline to prevent stretching before the collar is attached. 


One of the fun things about color blocking is the challenge of figuring out which color goes where.  As you can see, I used primarily the blue and gray for the shirt fronts and brown for the back.  I opted for plaid accents on the inside collar stand, the inside cuffs, and I added a single front pocket (with solid pocket flap to tame it a bit). Naturally, the plaid has the most visual impact but I think it's pretty well balanced. 





I am particularly proud of the upper collar, which I split in two: gray on one side, blue on the other.



My buttons are genuine mother-of-pearl. 

Here are links to the actual fabrics I ordered.  I used one yard of each of the solids and half a yard of the plaid (each approx. 44" wide) and there wasn't a whole lot left.  If you're going with a single solid, I'd order three yards.

Denim Blue

Brown 

Black (reads charcoal gray)

Mustard plaid

These are lovely fabrics to work with.  Style Maker Fabric offers a wide selection of cotton flannels to choose from.  (Check them all out here.)  Not only are they beautiful, they are also well-priced.  (Finding flannel plaids here in the NYC Garment District has always been something of a challenge.)

Thank you again, Michelle of Style Maker Fabrics, for inviting me to participate!

A little birdie has told me that tomorrow's Style Maker Fabrics Fall Blog Tour reveal will be Holly of the blog Holly Dolly Darling -- do check her out!

Happy sewing, everybody!


23 comments:

  1. What a great shirt-wish it was mine! Beautifully made too!
    Steven

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  2. great looking shirt, Peter...your tailoring, of course, is impeccable.....interesting choice of pocket placement.........

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    1. Normally, I'd place the pocket on the left, but for reasons of color balance, I ended up putting it on the right.

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    2. .....aha...after looking at your shirt...I can see what you mean...you have an "eagle eye.....should have known...terrific, Peter....

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  3. The details are amazing! Meticulous placement and execution. It's only going to look smarter with age.

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  4. Your sewmanship is impeccable as usual but I don't love the pocket. The plaid is just too jarring, but maybe I'm just old and cranky!

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  5. A very successful use of four fabrics in one shirt. Am so glad that we get a good look at the beautiful plaid which is my favorite.

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    1. I also love the plaid. It's also sturdier than the solid chambrays.

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  6. The color blocking is perfect. Beautiful shirt, so well made!

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  7. Oh, such beautifully-turned edges! What exquisite workmanship! If you ever turn your hand to making a Chanel-type jacket you'd have an eager audience, I'm sure.

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  8. Love the shirt! What pattern did you use.

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  9. Ohmigosh, I love your shirt; it's too too fabulous and you incorporated such an interesting mix of fabrics. In fact I want one for meeeeeeee! :D

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  10. I love how subtle this colorblocking is. It takes you a minute to realize how much is colorblocked and I love it!

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  11. Impeccable! I'd also like to know which pattern you used. I bought Dorothy Moore's 'Pattern drafting and dressingmaking' book, after you mentioned it in an earlier post but I haven't had a chance to try her method yet. If you used your drafted pattern from her book for this shirt, I definitely have to give it a go.

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    1. I used a vintage 70's pattern in my stash, Butterick 4575, with a few relatively minor changes.

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  12. Love your color blocked shirt! Adding the plaid fabric was a great idea!

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  13. As always, a beautifully made shirt. I've always admired how great your shirt making skills are. You could open up your own shop. This one is especially awesome. The section on colors and plaid are a great combination.

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  14. Fantastic shirt! The color choices, the fit and that COLLAR! I'm so jelly.....

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  15. The fit and drape of this shirt is the ideal example of my goals for my new shirt-making hobby. After learning some things about machine sewing by making a few quilts, I'm now trying shirt-making. I'm still not clear exactly what I want out of this hobby, but, if I could get shirts that fit and hang like this one, I'd be super jazzed. So far, I've made two shirts from the same pattern. I'm merging sizes (42 chest and 33 waist) and with each iteration, I'm making adjustments to the cuts of the pattern pieces. I'm attempting to reduce volume in the sleeves and find the right cut to give a good line to the seams connecting the front and back. Is there a better way? Do I just keep keep making more shirts until I get to the right fit and desired fullness? Maybe there's a class I could take that teaches general principles that would allow me to make the right adjustments as soon as I try a new pattern for the first time. Thanks for your blog. I really like and appreciate your creativity and positivity. -Aaron

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    1. You do want to make sure you're starting with the best-fitting commercial pattern size, but once you've done that, yes, making sample shirts and tweaking them to adjust fit is a good way to accomplish your goals. Another option is to draft a shirt from scratch and there are many pattern-drafting books out there if you look online, including a few that focus specifically on drafting menswear. This post might be of interest:

      http://malepatternboldness.blogspot.com/2018/08/drafting-mens-shirt-pattern-from-scratch.html

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