Vogue Xmas PJs

I almost forgot to share the Xmas sewing I did in 2023! Well, there's not much (aside from a lovely scarf I made my sister). My holiday sewing was mainly a pj top from a Vogue 80s pattern in my stash. After sharing my own new sleepwear, I thought I'd share one that I made for the husband, too. 

This was a request, for a warm shirt for sleeping. I used Vogue 7079 from 1987, so the sizing was  generous. Instead of the medium that matched his measurements, I took this down to a loosely cut Small, which ended up being somewhere between the S & M sizes. It was perfect. A closer fit, but still loose enough to be comfortable sleepwear. 

The beautiful cotton was found on sale at Fabricland shortly before Christmas. It washed up beautifully and was soft and great to work with. The most complicated part of this was cutting it out so that the plaid matched. I think I did pretty well across the front and sides, but I calculated the sleeve matching incorrectly, so it's offset instead of a straight match. I still think it's okay. 

The collar was a bit tricky, as it was inset, but once I got it all pinned and clipped, it sewed in quite nicely. It was the most time consuming bit of sewing, for sure. I wasn't sure I was going to add a pocket or not, but it was asked for, so I added one cut on the bias for interest.

 The sleeve just has a simple turn under and stitch hem, so that was quick - no fancy finishes to worry about. 

And when it was time to put buttons on, I looked through my extensive stash of thrifted buttons, where there were many plain shirt style buttons which worked but were kind of boring. Then I came across this set of recently thrifted buttons that have a yellowy-green centre, and they were perfect! Love them, and they match the tones of this so well. I was happy to use them on such a satisfying project. 

I don't often make things for other people, so I do find it a little nerve-wracking, but I think this one turned out well -- it looks nice and fits well. What more can a person ask? :) 

Butterick 3777: Men's Shorts from 1986!

One of the things I wanted to make this year was some menswear. My husband was in need of a new pair of shorts, so I thought it was time to give these a go. His preferences for a more formal, higher waisted and narrow short don't exist in many stores. I picked up both this 1986 pattern and the nice bottom weight fabric while thrifting some time ago. They are a perfect match. 

The shorts are elastic waisted, with front fly & snap, slant front pockets & a back patch pocket. Pretty basic as far as something for a man goes! This was my first try fitting my husband, and also I've only made two pair of stretch pants for myself before, so this was a challenge for me. My husband liked View B, the longer short, but his fit preference is a little different from these slightly baggier 80s shorts. He has a narrow frame, and always finds modern shorts with their board short vibe too casual and oversized for his style. Fortunately, he still had one pair that he liked the fit of, so I used them along with his measurements to adjust this pattern. 

I narrowed the side seams by about 1/2" on front and back, tapering to the knee. I extended the shorts by 1.5" to give them the length he prefers. Fortunately the rise matched his favourite shorts so I didn't have to try any more difficult adjustments. And with the elastic waistband, I had more leeway to get a comfortable fit.

The fabric is very classic but I hadn't quite realized when I started how careful I'd need to be with the pattern matching! It's a regular print so wasn't terrible, but did take some study. Also, the front pieces are cut completely vertical, but the back piece is on a bit of a angle. This meant that I could only match up with a chevron at side seam and centre back. 

It also meant that with this print I had to cut the pockets on a slant that matched that of the back panels. While the actual piece was symmetrical and the tops were straight, the check was on a slant. Quite an optical illusion when I was pressing and prepping the pockets -- I had to check a few times to be sure I hadn't completely messed them up! But when they were pinned on they suddenly looked straight as they were supposed to. Whew! 

I learned new techniques and tried new things making these shorts, aside from the weirdness of fitting someone who is not me ;) I have never made a mock fly before, and this one was tough. The instructions & illustrations in the pattern itself weren't very helpful, so I turned to youtube and found a couple of videos that helped me to figure it out. And I also installed my first ever snap! That was not a snap. I had some difficulties figuring out how it was supposed to work, but youtube to the rescue once again, and now a nice brass snap lives on these shorts.

So while this is a fairly easy design, I was very pleased with the challenge of it, and the outcome too. They fit like my husband likes, I think they look great on him, and the pattern matching worked out too. I think I'll have to try new things a little more often.

Mending & Extending Wearability of a Favourite Pair of Trousers

My husband has a favourite pair of summer slacks that he's been asking me to mend for quite a long time. They are slightly too long, and because of that, the hem had become frayed and tattered.

I finally took a look at them, and well, putting it off so long meant less of a hemming job and more of a reconstructive surgery job! Like they say, a stitch in time saves nine. So true.

I forgot to take a photo of what they looked like when I unpicked the original hem and saw how big the holes were on the original fold. Suffice to say they were long and gaping. I couldn't just cut off the fabric above the holes, since the hem only needed to be raised by 1/2". So I needed that length for a foldup!

What to do? Well, this isn't the professional or neat & tidy way to fix a pair of pants, but it is the one that worked for me with this situation.

First I trimmed the loose threads from the long tears, then placed a strip of lightweight fusible interfacing over the backs of them (the side that will be covered when they're turned up again). I matched the sides of the holes together as closely as possible and pressed it on, to keep the holes whole. It worked to a certain level -- I just didn't want more fraying or potential toe-catchers on the inside of the hem. I tried to zigzag over the narrowest tear but this fabric wasn't having it.

So I went full on with a patch system. I trimmed the original folded over 1/4" of the hem, and used that narrow strip to lay over the tears on the side that will be showing on the inside of the pant leg. Then I stitched them down with a narrow zigzag. Like I said, this isn't a pretty fix, and it does add a bit more weight to the hem, but it works to extend the life of these trousers for the rest of the summer before they meet their next incarnation as either shorts or painting pants!

The stitching marks from the first hem are pretty resistant to being pressed or brushed out, so the next step was to press under the new hem and stitch along the original stitching lines. This means the new hem is half the depth of the old one, but it looks better than having a phantom line of stitch holes. Plus these aren't fancy dress pants, so the narrower hem isn't really noticeable -- it doesn't affect the hang much and they look much the same as they did before, except without frayed edges along the bottom!

It was a bit of a puzzle to figure out the best way to mend this pair of trousers to keep them wearable. I'm glad I just went ahead and tried something out that my husband is happy with. Long live comfortable pants!

Weekend Review: Measure of a Man

The Measure of a Man / Martin Greenfield & Wynton Hall
Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, c2014.
234 p.

For my final read for a month of Menswear at the Sewcialists, I picked up this memoir from my library. It tells the story of Martin Greenfield (born Maximilian Grunfeld in Czechoslovakia), who survived Auschwitz and came to America, where he became a top-level tailor with a company providing suits to politicians, society people and tv & movies.

The first half of the book details his youth and his life pre & during WWII. It's powerful stuff, detailed, full of the horrors we know of the Holocaust but told in a straightforward manner. Martin alone out of his family survived, and part of the reason he continued on with his life was because his father had told him the last time they were together, that he had to live for the family if he survived.

His story is full of detail and casual descriptions of terrible things; he also is very open about his own feelings and longings to punish his captors. His personality comes through very strongly in both halves of the book, as someone who is a hustler and yet is always somehow innocently delighted at his luck.

Many reviews of this book mention the increasing name-dropping in the second part of the book, when Martin is talking about his tailoring company and all the celebrity clients he's made suits for. It is a bit noticeable after a while. However, I did feel that it was part of the overall arc of the book -- Martin is name-dropping in more of a child-like delight than a bragging sense, at least to my mind. Also, as someone reading this firstly because of the connections to tailoring and only secondly for the war story, perhaps my perspective was a bit different from some readers.

I felt that Martin was talking about his clients with pride for his success, for his growth from nothing to a success in the great land of America (and make no mistake, he thinks America is the tops, with no reservations. The only false note in the whole book for me was when he praises New York businessman Trump -- this was pre-2016 but still. He does come across as quite conservative in many ways.) 

I enjoyed the story of how he got into the tailoring trade in the first place, kind of accidentally when he first arrived to be with his family in America. He started as a floor runner but wanted to know everything about the business and the factory owner saw his initiative and taught him all he could. Martin took over the business many years later and is justifiably proud of the fact that their suits are all made in their New York factory with no shortcuts -- all hand sewn in the traditional manner. The description of the factory and the clients and the staff are all fascinating and I could only wish for more of it.

The book also includes a central portion of photos ranging from his childhood to current photos, which is a nice addition. He mentions at one point that the suit making he'd done for tv shows like Boardwalk Empire (they made all the suits for that one) or Blacklist gave him his first tv cameo as well: he and his factory appear in Episode 7 of Blacklist, which is conveniently on Netflix so I looked it up and you can really get a great view of a working space in a suit factory, complete with ancient tech, by watching the short clip!

Anyhow, this was a really interesting read and I'm glad I came across it while looking for dressmaking books in my library collection. I didn't even realize it had so much to do with wartime and the Nazi horror until I received it, but it was a well-composed and compelling story. His ghostwriter really seems to have captured a sense of his personality and shaped the story in a readable and fascinating way.

Weekend Review: The Gentleman's Wardrobe

The Gentleman's Wardrobe: Vintage-Style Projects to Make for the Modern Man / Vanessa Mooncie
Lewes, East Sussex: Guild of Master Craftsmen Publications, c2017.
174 p.

This month it's also a celebration of Menswear for Everyone over at the Sewcialists blog. I am fully intending to finish the Vogue 8987 waistcoat I muslined for my husband a year ago now...really! But I keep getting distracted by new ideas -- like the Thread Theory Belvedere Waistcoat, which pattern I bought on Black Friday -- or the ideas in this book!

Author Vanessa Mooncie is better known for her books on crochet and children's design, so at first I thought it was a bit odd that she has put together this book on traditional menswear. But she says that she was inspired by pictures of family members in the past, all so nicely dressed for all occasions. And this book claims to give you everything you need to create a full classic wardrobe for the man in your life -- or for yourself, if you are a male sewist.

I think it lives up to that claim. There are 14 projects in here, and if you made them all, you'd have a man dressed from head to (nearly) foot -- no sock pattern, although there a slipper one ;) There are the basics like a waistcoat (my fave), suit jacket, trousers, button down shirt, and accessories like a flat cap, bag, ties or wallet, as well as lounging items like boxers, slippers, pyjamas and a gown. The only one that doesn't really work is the wallet -- it's a little too artsy craftsy for my taste, and I think a dapper gentleman would prefer a fine leather wallet look over this one.

The book is nicely put together, organized in sections for daywear, nightwear and accessories, and has lots of well styled photos to entice you, though the models are all young white modelly types. There is a small section of techniques at the back, and some added resources for supplies.

I haven't made anything from it yet but have a couple of patterns earmarked and am hoping to get them traced out soon. I think it's a nice addition to the limited number of men's patterns out there, and it completely fits in with my husband's more traditional aesthetic, which is why I bought it. No need for jeans or hoodie patterns around here ;)

It comes with three double sided pattern sheets that you'll need to trace, but there are only 3 sizes, S-M-L so the lines aren't too confusing. The limited sizes might be a problem for many sewists -- neck goes from 15 - 16", chest 36 - 42", while waist runs 30 - 36". Luckily for me this works, but heads up if you have a differently sized model.

In any case, it's an interesting book to explore with many quick projects (like a bow tie or cravat) and many more complex ones (suit jacket anyone?) I think you could get a lot of wardrobe pieces out of this.

You can see 7 of the 14 projects in this picture from the book