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Year - 1972
Designer - NA
These guys are great! They just scream 70's sleaze. It seems silly to spend the time making a men's shirt, but if you want something truly eye-catching, custom is the way to go. Once you've made one shirt slowly, they go fast. Shirts are a three day project and it really pays to stop and fit Don't be intimidated, this is actually a lot easier then a lot of womens wear, although every collar gets ripped out at least twice before all the pieces line up and lay perfectly. We were looking for a nautical effect and Adam actually picked out this red and navy striped cotton himself. I love to play with the stripes to achieve maximum effect, contrasting the angles of the diagonal and hi-lighting the button placket. I lined up the pockets to render them invisible and just left the flap for contrast, it was just to loud otherwise. I also top stitch at 1/8" or 1/16" not the 1/4" which looks dated sometimes.
Fitting him is always a challenge, so I leave large seam allowances for adjustment and add a couple of inches to the bottom length in case the pattern runs short. Adam doesn't perform the human pincushion act but he was a sport getting pinned up for fittings. The shoulder had a drop that looked off so I raised the shoulder line an inch which greatly improved the shoulder line. I always taper the short sleeve cuff to avoid the dreaded "office worker look" and here about 3" was removed from the bottom width. The giant collar was made smaller, he's not in the cast of "Threes Company" although the Mister Farley neckerchief is tempting..
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| This is the layout of the pieces, my cat never misses a chance to roll around on them! |
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| This is the shirt pin basted I like to check how the pattern works |
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| The bias placket with button holes marked, I used vintage white pearl buttons for contrast. |
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| fitting |
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| Ready to rock! |
