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Help a beginner with Simplicity 4923 shirt?

Started by Shestval, November 24, 2014, 09:40:25 PM

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Shestval

Hi, all! My apologies for creating an account just to beg for help, but here I am. And I need help.

(If you don't want to read my life story, just skip to the horizontal break.)

Here's my story: I've never worn garb before. I've always loved the idea but I'm cheap and don't know how to sew. My husband and I make crochet dolls, though, and we sell them at conventions and online. I found a little indoor winter ren faire in our area, so I applied as a vendor and was accepted! With a little less than 2 months until the faire, I sent off the booth payment and then sat down the read the contract.

This faire requires all vendors to be in garb, and doesn't refund vendor reservations.

I had ZERO pieces of garb, and I needed full outfits for two people in less than two months. And we couldn't afford to buy the pieces pre-made. I was able to thrift some skirts and a vest for myself to be able to fake it (this faire doesn't require historical accuracy). But there was no way I would be able to thrift an outfit for my husband. So I did the only sensible thing: buy a sewing machine and get to work!

I started with reddawn.net's "pattern" for a skirt and made an elastic-waisted petticoat out of an old sheet for practice. It's ugly and inaccurate, but hey, it's not supposed to be seen. It will do the job of added volume and warmth. Then I used reddawn's pattern for drawstring pants to make my husband a pair of pants, using an old-but-decent-looking top sheet in chocolate-brown stripes. The pants aren't fantastic, but they will do. I'm going to hem them short and make sailor slops. (I then bought the pattern for and made a knee-length modern skirt, to have a little practice using a pattern, but that's irrelevant to the garb.)

We decided to go with a sailor theme for my husband. (I've got a thing for tallship sailors, anyway.) He knit himself a watchcap and we bought some cream-colored kneesocks. For shoes, we'll fake it with a pair of old dress shoes. But we needed a shirt and maybe a coat or vest. I picked up Simplicity 4923 (ARRRRRR!) and got to work!

I made the vest (view B, but without the pocket flaps) out of navy canvas duck and some blue muslin-ish fabric. I haven't put on the buttons/button holes, but the vest will work as-is in a pinch, so I decided to put it on hold while I make the shirt.




I'm using a good-condition cream-colored cotton sheet for the shirt (view D). I cut all the pieces (SO MANY PIECES) and went to look at the instructions. And I'm totally stumped. The instructions are asking me to edge finish the edges without large dots? Huh? What does that even mean? And then I'm supposed to make the slash for the front, and I'm just lost. I don't understand.

I'm a total beginner who's owned her sewing machine for a month, but I managed my modern skirt and the 4923 B vest just fine. I've googled around and no one has any advice on the 4923 D shirt, because everyone made the coat. (Unf, that coat! Maybe when I'm a better sewer...) Can anyone who's made this shirt help walk me through this? I'd appreciate it so much. I can scan or retype the instructions if that would help. I just need them explained in much better detail than the pattern does.

I've got 10 days till the faire, and I can still do this!

isabelladangelo

The first rule of sewing is to throw out the directions - they never make sense.  I've been sewing for this entire century, and they still make zero sense to me.   

Second, if you would have mentioned something before starting to sew, I would have told you to go with the a-tunic/ t-tunics.  It only requires 3 yards of fabric for the average sized women to make a very lovely a-tunic and about two yards of fabric for a t-tunic for the average sized man.  ...Honestly, since you are a beginner, I'd say put the pattern away for now and go with a basic t-tunic top for you husband.  You'll be happier.   

You can read about the historical accuracy of tunics here: http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/viktunic.html

However, the pattern itself is simple - one large rectangle for the front, one large rectangle for the back, 2 fat quarters (18" by 22") for the sleeves, and four right triangles for the side gores.   You'll also need two small squares (6") for the underarms, depending on the construction you go with.  Since each of the pieces are basic shapes, there aren't any curves or really hard angles to cut out - just some measuring and sewing everything together.

http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Tunics/TUNICS.HTML  <- The full tutorial

However, if you really want to go ahead with the shirt (I think that's the Captain Jack Sparrow one?), it is actually accurate -ish...for the 18th Century.   It's not something I would ever recommend for a beginner.

If you really *really* want to go through with this shirt and not just work on a tunic instead (accurate and simple!), keep reading.

The pieces you need for the shirt are 15-20.   You might want 23 but ignore the cravat - we aren't going to bother with that for this shirt.   We are going to keep it simple and not bother with a lot of ruffles.   

The front, piece 15, should be cut on a fold.  On the pattern, there will be a notch of some sort to show where the neck opening ends.  You'll want to cut down from the neck to this point along the center fold.  Match the neck facing, piece 16 to that.  Sew right sides together, flip it, and iron it down flat so you have a nice little opening.  You can either a) flip the neck facing edges so they are tucked up against the inside (wrong side) of the front piece and stich 'em down or b) roll the edges of the neck facing and stitch the edges down so you don't see extra line of stitching.  You can also do c) which is to say screw the neck facing - it almost never comes out right anyway- make about two feet of bias tape out of the scraps of your fabric (all bias tape is is fabric cut diagonally -ie, on the bias- so it has some stretch.  you just then fold the edges in, iron it, and fold it again).  You then take the bias tape and use that around the neck opening.  This is period going back to the 12th century at least...and similar to what I end up doing a lot of the time.

So you have your front piece done.  Now take the back piece - 17- and sew it at the shoulders only for now.  Right sides together, shoulders matching.  Put it to the side.

Pick up the sleeve piece - 19- and gather lightly at the cuff end.  This will be the end that doesn't have the triangular bit.  Match your gathers to the cuff- piece 20.  Sew the gathered cuff of the sleeve, right sides together, to the cuff.  Sew up the seam from the wrist to the underarm.  Flip the cuff, folding the inside edge of the cuff down, and sew it down as close to the outside seam as you can.

Do this for both sleeves.

Back to pieces 15 & 17.  Sew them up, right sides together, to where the pattern indicates the underarm should be (probably about 9" or 10" down the side of both the front and the back).  Mark this with either chalk or a pin before you sew so you know where to stop.   

Make sure the sleeves are right sides out.  Match the sleeve seam to the shirt side seam - meaning the right sides of the fabric are together and the sleeve is basically inside the shirt from your perspective.  You might want to mark the top of the sleeves before you do this.  Only do one sleeve at a time. 

Once you pin the sleeve seam to the shirt seam, match the top of the sleeve to the shoulder seam.  The sleeve itself is slightly bigger than the armscye (arm hole).  Gather or pleat (I normally pleat) the top of the sleeve until it fits well into the armscye.  (If you pleat, you can just pin the pleats in and sew it all down at once.  If you want to gather it, you'll have to unpin the bottom seams and keep measuring the sleeve to the armscye.)  Sew around the armscye, attaching the sleeve to the shirt body.

Do this for the other sleeve as well.

You are almost done!

Pin the collar piece - 18- center to the shirt back - 17- center.  Pin the collar piece edges just slightly off - meaning you'll have a small bit of the collar piece overlapping the front by maybe a centemeter if that- to the shirt front -15.  Again, it won't match up perfectly because you need to either gather or pleat the neckline to the collar piece.  If you pleat it, make the pleats going left towards the front on the left side, and the pleats going right towards the front on the left side, on the back.  You shouldn't need to pleat it much. 

Gathering might be slightly easier in this instance.  Just do basting stitches (turn the stitch length on your machine up from 2 to 4) and leave long trailing ends when you stitch all the way around - close to the edge of the neck as you dare.  Pull one of the trailing threads and move the slowly gathering fabric towards the other end.  It will take time but don't pull too hard or else the thread will break and you'll have to start over.  I've found just hand sewing it - taking a piece of thread that is the length of the collar plus 5"- and not smoothing out the fabric as I double stitch (work two stitches at the same time by moving the needle through the fabric twice before pulling the tread completely through) works a lot faster.

Once the neckline of the body of the shirt is gathered or pleated, match the collar to the center back again and have it overlap the front slightly again.  Stitch it down, right sides together (meaning you'll have to flip the shirt with the right side out at some point).   Turn the collar in half.  Sew along the edges only.  Flip the collar and fold the unsewn edge in so that there won't be any raw edges of the collar visible anywhere on the shirt.  Sew the folded edge down.   

Hem the bottom of the shirt. 

I hope that makes much more sense!   


Shestval

#2
Thank you so, so much! Yes, it's the "Jack Sparrow shirt," and I realized I never mentioned it, but my husband is a slightly large size medium. I skimmed what you wrote and I definitely think I can work it out from there. I knew the shirt pattern was more advanced but each thing I've made has been more advanced than the last (the vest is lined!) so I was hoping I could figure it out. The instructions for this shirt read almost as gibberish, though. ;_;

I don't have the fabric to start over with a new shirt, because I already cut the pieces for this one. Buuuuut I think I can do it with your instructions. I'll give it a try and check back in a few days. And I'll be sure to post a picture of my husband's finished garb!

As far as costuming periods go, I'm more excited about the 18th century than the true renaissance period anyway, so as long as the ren fest garbers don't beat us up for being out of period, I'm happy. ;)

ETA: Wait a minute, I might actually have the fabric for a basic tunic, I'll have to check. If I do, I'll probably do that first and then come back to this shirt if I still have time. The faire is three days long and I bet my husband would appreciate a change of shirt!

Lady L

I sewed that pattern for my husband and didn't have a problem with the directions. Simplicity directions and diagrams are quite good.  Good luck with your show.
Former Shop Owner at MNRF

Shestval

I ended up making the Jack Sparrow Simplicity shirt, and it's coming together! I'm using a combo of isabelladangelo's and the pattern's instructions, as isabelladangelo's instructions are much more clear (to me) but the pattern's instructions has some details I wanted to add.

I should be able to finish it in the next couple of days, and then I'll post it. It's imperfect but I've learned SO MUCH putting it together!

Lady Kathleen of Olmsted

I have used the SIMPLICITY Jack Sparrow pattern for shirts for my husband. It is a simple pattern to use and the results are good. The back piece is longer than the front for a reason.  I hzve made tne pants and vest as well. He coat, I have not  made. I use a different pattern for  Pirare coats.
"As with Art as in Life, nothing succeeds like excess.".....Oscar Wilde