The shirt needed slight alterations. I really enjoyed making this shirt because everything about the construction is neat and tidy. There are no unfinished edges anywhere in the garment. The armhole was too small. This was easy to remedy by lowering the armhole slit in the body piece and removing some of the gathers in the sleeve head to fill the larger area. This, unfortunately, was done after the shirt was almost finished. If I made it again, I would alter the other pieces (such as the sleeve binder) to match.
The other issue was the neckband. There is NO ease in the neckband. Where the pattern says the neck size is X inches, the neckband is X inches plus overlap seam allowance and no more. The shirt is gathered into the neckband. The neckband is just a rectangle so I’d suggest cutting your own neckband based on your mesurements plus the amount of ease you prefer. I added 1/2 inch for ease.
Like the shirt, these pants have a neat appearance although many seam allowances are left raw. I pinked mine. I really like the look of the fly closure, the front pockets and the back yoke. I did omit much of the top-stitching because I think too much top-stitching looks cheap. But this is my preference, not a flaw in the pattern. I found the pants to be quite roomy in the seat for the waist measurement (about 10″ ease from their specified hip size).
All this being said, this is a pattern that still has some annoying attributes. The directions are in ridiculous order. Following them in the order they are written entails going from the sewing machine to the ironing board far more often than necessary. It would be much easier to press all the folds in all the pieces that need to be pre-pressed, at one time. There are too many pattern markings; many are useful in matching the pieces, but some just have you waste time marking in order to be told something painfully obvious, such as the front leg sews to the back leg at the side seam. Some of the directions are confusing. but usually after I gave up trying to understand them and just followed them (blindly), they worked out and eventually made sense.
I do think the overall look is nice and reasonably historically accurate. The wearer reports that both garments are very comfortable and he really likes the look. I probably will use the pattern again.
Elizabeth Merritt –
The shirt needed slight alterations. I really enjoyed making this shirt because everything about the construction is neat and tidy. There are no unfinished edges anywhere in the garment. The armhole was too small. This was easy to remedy by lowering the armhole slit in the body piece and removing some of the gathers in the sleeve head to fill the larger area. This, unfortunately, was done after the shirt was almost finished. If I made it again, I would alter the other pieces (such as the sleeve binder) to match.
The other issue was the neckband. There is NO ease in the neckband. Where the pattern says the neck size is X inches, the neckband is X inches plus overlap seam allowance and no more. The shirt is gathered into the neckband. The neckband is just a rectangle so I’d suggest cutting your own neckband based on your mesurements plus the amount of ease you prefer. I added 1/2 inch for ease.
Like the shirt, these pants have a neat appearance although many seam allowances are left raw. I pinked mine. I really like the look of the fly closure, the front pockets and the back yoke. I did omit much of the top-stitching because I think too much top-stitching looks cheap. But this is my preference, not a flaw in the pattern. I found the pants to be quite roomy in the seat for the waist measurement (about 10″ ease from their specified hip size).
All this being said, this is a pattern that still has some annoying attributes. The directions are in ridiculous order. Following them in the order they are written entails going from the sewing machine to the ironing board far more often than necessary. It would be much easier to press all the folds in all the pieces that need to be pre-pressed, at one time. There are too many pattern markings; many are useful in matching the pieces, but some just have you waste time marking in order to be told something painfully obvious, such as the front leg sews to the back leg at the side seam. Some of the directions are confusing. but usually after I gave up trying to understand them and just followed them (blindly), they worked out and eventually made sense.
I do think the overall look is nice and reasonably historically accurate. The wearer reports that both garments are very comfortable and he really likes the look. I probably will use the pattern again.