McCalls 8649

This is a very old out of print pattern and I've lost track of the number of shirts I've made from it.  So well used in fact that the tissue pieces are stuck onto iron on interfacing to preserve them.

The fabric is silk charmeuse from a FabricMart bundle and has been marinading in stash for some years now.  I tried a trick I read about a few years ago, and starched the fabric prior to cutting and making it.  This seems to have tamed the fabric beautifully, rendering it almost obedient.  :)    To avoid getting it starched off grain (as I did with a  previous piece when I tried this) I laid a towel down on the living room floor, spread the silk out flat on that, lining the selvedges up with the towel edges, sprayed the starch and ironed with a dry iron, section by section, pressing rather than sliding the iron as much as possible.  It took ages but was worth the work.  

The pattern has multiple collar options, two different placket options, plus two body options; a shirt with a real yoke and a pleat below the yoke like a mans shirt, or a smooth back with a  faux front yoke formed by the back shoulder being extended to carry on over the shoulder and form a seam on the front.  I wanted the simplest version so went for the over shoulder yoke version.  I did, however, choose the more complex placket option, which Palmer Pletsch call the house with a  chimney.  Its the classic mens shirt placket and whilst I always have to look up the instructions, and its a little fiddly, it always looks better than my attempts at a basic rolled hem placket. 

I used lightweight interfacing on the front bands, which are integral to the front piece and folded back on themselves before being top stitched down.  I used the same in the collar pieces and the fold over cuffs, interfacing both sides in each case rather than just one side since the fabric will be very drapey once the starch is out of it. 

I've done a stand collar, drawing it slightly deeper than the collar stand given in the pattern, since the pattern's stand is quite narrow and produces a rather dated look.   

The placket pieces were interfaced with ultra-lightweight interfacing and this, plus the starch, stabilised the pieces enough to make the placket no more difficult to sew than it would have been in cotton.  I think I must have made the cuffs smaller at some point in the dim and distant past as the sleeve needed an extra tuck to get it to fit into the cuff.

Buttons are very lightweight gold metal ones taken from 1980's era Jacques Vert shirts which were my favourite back in the day so I'm pleased that they are going to have a new lease of life in this shirt.   Buttonholes were a trial of epic proportions involving machine failure, foot failure, a need to use tissue under the fabric on the garment (but not on the test scrap, rather annoyingly), and a bobbin that ran out part way through the first button hole.  Took two hours to complete nine buttonholes but they came out mostly OK in the end.