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Guide to Sewing Men's Shirts
by Sandy Beggs
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Overview
Like any garment, men's shirts can be sewn by a home seamstress with professional-looking fit and results. Armed with the right fabrics, accessories and equipment--and some practice--you'll be stitching shirts for your favorite guy in no time, with all the little details you've come to expect from your favorite department store.
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Pattern and Fabric
The key to getting the results you want is to start with the proper pattern and fabric. Most of the top pattern companies offer shirt patterns for men. A trip to your local fabric store should yield a pattern, or browse through the offerings online. Select a pattern that has the features you're most interested in: type of collar, straight or shirt-tail hem, yoked or not. Sleeve length is an easy fix so choose a pattern that has the other details you want.
Novice sewers can find quick and simple patterns from most of the pattern companies. The main advantage of these quick-to-stitch patterns is that they frequently have fewer pieces to cut out and fit together and offer shortcuts in some of the finishing steps.
Once you've selected a pattern, read the pattern envelope for suggested fabrics. A woven fabric such as a polyester-cotton blend, an oxford cloth or cotton broadcloth will give a finished product that most closely resembles the men's dress shirts available in stores. The pattern envelope will provide a guide of how much fabric is needed for the shirt style and size you've selected. Newcomers to home sewing might want to start with a solid color for their first try or two to avoid some of the challenges that come with matching plaids and stripes during stitching.
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Buttons and Other Finishing Touches
Along with suggesting the best fabrics, the pattern envelope provides a list of "notions," which is sewing-speak for everything else that is needed to complete a project. This could include buttons, thread, zippers, hooks, etc. The typical man's shirt will need buttons and the pattern back will tell you exactly how many buttons you need for the style you've selected. Interfacing, a fabric used to stiffen collars and cuffs, will also be needed. Again, the pattern will provide suggestions on how much and what weight of interfacing is needed.
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Sewing the Shirt
The pattern will include detailed instructions for how to cut out the pattern pieces, and the correct steps for putting the shirt together. Once you've started stitching, most shirt patterns will start with construction of the shirt body first, followed by the collar, sleeves and then the finishing touches, including buttons, buttonholes and hem.
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Needed Hardware
A sewing machine is needed to stitch the seams, and some seamstresses will choose to use a serger, a type of sewing machine that finishes the inside seams so they won't ravel during wear and washings. If you don't have access to a serger, a sewing machine with a zigzag stitch will also finish the seams to prevent raveling. You'll also need access to an iron as you're sewing. Straight pins, scissors and a measuring tape round out the list of needed equipment.
