Lessons from a Fairfield Tiger, of which, there are many! I made this shirt for my husband during the Year of the Tiger 😀 Not because of the Lunar New Year, per se, but because it was something he genuinely wanted. I imagined he would wear it with his blue suit, walking down the street with a cigar in his mouth. In reality, its a shirt he wears unbuttoned over a bare chest sitting around the campfire, once a year. But still. I made it! And here are a few of the lessons I learned.
Underlining
I bought this fabric from Spoonflower, because my husband was really after a tiger print button-up he had seen before. When it arrived I worried it might be a little transparent and I was going for opacity. I decided to underline it. Underlining is different from lining a garment, which you can read about here
I found that when I pressed the underlining together with the main fabric pieces that it was easier to get them to lie flat without bubbling in between. I hand stitched them together and pressed the pieces after each edge of stitching. Sometimes I still had to restitch the pieces if it wasn’t quite flat, but the effort was worth it!
Sewing in daylight
When I decided to remake one half of the shirt front (because I didn’t pattern match properly. Keep reading to find out more), I had to underline my new tiger print piece. I didn’t have quite enough white cotton, so I went out and bought some more, washed it and began working with it. At night time with the light of my lamp this was no problem. But in day time, HOWEVER, with the light of the sun coming in the window I noticed that the cotton I originally used had picked up a bit of the orange pigment when I pre washed it with the tiger print. I didn’t notice this at all when working in the evenings, but with real sunlight, I could tell the two white fabrics were not at all the same. This was quite discouraging, but since it was only the underlining that was off, I kept going. Now I know to pre wash with a color-catcher and to wash separately (for best results) 😀
Lengthening the collar
I usually do a wearable mock-up when working with a pattern for the first time on someone, and I did for the Fairfield as well. The shirt fit wonderfully, except that the collar was not large enough and my husband could not do up the top button, which he likes to do normally. So for the real deal, I decided to lengthen the collar by one inch. To do this I added one inch to the center back of the collar pieces and collar stand. I then added half an inch to each shirt front pattern piece. I made sure to split the pattern piece a bit outside of the button placket but still underneath the collar (not the shoulder).
This worked really well.
Decorative seams for cutting mistakes
After sewing the button placket, I noticed I hadn’t accounted for seam allowance properly and when buttoned up, the pattern just didn’t line up how I had wanted. I was severely disappointed, because I was convinced I had accounted for everything before cutting. And it looked bad when I placed both front pieces together. I didn’t have many scraps of fabric left and definitely not enough to re-cut the the left front in one piece. So I re-cut it in two pieces. I put the new “decorative” (read: mistake-hiding) seam directly underneath the pocket. And carried on. I am proud as punch about this one. I saved the shirt and managed to pattern match as perfectly as I had originally planned 😀
I considered top-stitching the other shirt front in the same area to match, but didn’t bother. Asymmetry has its own merits.
Ta-Da!
