Sunday 30 June 2019

McCall's 2447: Summertime Plaid

You're not seeing double, this is a second half of a matching mini-me set.  I made a men's and boy's version of long sleeve shirts and here is the men's version made up with McCall's 2447, circa 1999.


Yes, that's right, this pattern is twenty years old and the classic design has stood the test of time. As matter of fact, McCall's still offers this pattern for sale.

Now you would assume that since I've made a few of these in the past that I could whip this project blindfolded. Let me assure you that I'm not that talented. There were bloopers and then some and if you follow on Instagram you would have been laughing along.

My first error came just after I pretreated this fabric.  In hindsight I should have starched the fabric before cutting it out and the sad part is that I have fabric starch on hand.  This would have prevented the fabric from shifting.  I tried my best match the plaid in the front and would you believe that I even cut out the front pieces in single layers?  This fabric is a lightweight cotton and it is as delicate as silk.  I should have treated it as such. I thought that I would distract from the mismatch by cutting the front facing on a diagonal but it didn't work, I can tell.  Should have starched.


I was all excited to try the couture method of sewing the shirt yoke again (also referred to as the burrito method).  In my excitement, I enclosed the yoke before attaching the shirt front pieces. Yes, I did. I even serged the edges.

Once I seam ripped and attached the shirt fronts I noticed that I had sewn the wrong side of the back piece as my right side.  And I left it as is since you can tell the right from the wrong sides of this French yarn dyed fabric. I only noticed by the way the pleat sits. Shhh, this will be our little secret.


And then late last night when I was putting the final touches on these shirts I noticed that one front was longer than the other. How I completely missed that is beyond me! This was more serious than a seam ripper could fix. This correction required scissors and reshaping.


Thankfully, it all worked out in the end.

The Stats

Fabric:  2.4 metres

Interfacing:  0.80 metres fusible

Buttons:  9 - 12 mm recycled

PatternMcCall's 2447

Additional Tools & Supplies:  Cutting table, pins, pin cushions, scissors, thread clippers, seam ripper, sewing machine, walking foot, buttonhole foot, serger, iron, ironing board, tweezers, threads, hand sewing needle, tailor's chalk, tailor's wax and coffee.

Happy Sewing!  



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