A Musician's Shirt...

A musician I have known for years and who is also a long standing client of mine, recently ordered another of my shirts.  His request?  "I want a lightweight denim shirt that doesn't look too casual, and give it some jazzy style". My response, "Can you give me some idea of what you have in mind?" To which he replied, "Design something, Pammy, Design something !"

 I had some slightly distressed lightweight denim and some striped chambray in my "shirt-making stash". The fabric was stacked together on the shelf, and I liked the combination...now I had to decide how to combine them.  I knew right away that I wanted to make a contrasting right center-front placket with the striped chambray cut on the bias. But was that going to be enough "jazzy style" for my client? Hmm...so I cut the inner yoke and inner collar stand from the chambray, and added a strip of it to the pocket.   (Side thought--You may notice that the pocket, collar, and cuffs are a bit "oversized". My client is a big man, and smaller design details tend to look childish on his shirts.)


Was it "jazzy" enough yet?  Before sewing further, I sent a photo to my client. His reply was, "Do more with that stripe, I like it."  So throwing caution to the wind, I added a wide bias-cut sleeve placket, and "wrapped" the edge of the cuffs with the chambray. 

After the buttons were sewn and threads snipped, I boxed up the "jazzy shirt", and delivered it to my client, leaving it with his wife...hoping he would like it. Then I went to the bank and cashed his check.  I heard from him later that day...he is very happy with the design...always a thrill for me.  And a good thing...because I had already spent the money :)

SEWING NOTES: The shirt is finished with the wooden buttons that we carry at www.FashionSewingSupply.com .  I turned them over and used the back side of the buttons as the front.  The denim "parts" of the shirt that needed to be reinforced were interfaced with our 60" wide Pro-Weft Supreme Lightweight  The chambray was interfaced with 62" wide Pro-Sheer Elegance to stabilize the bias cut pieces, inner collar stand, and the inner cuff. 


Here is the quick sequence of how I wrapped the edges of the cuffs--

-- Cut the outer cuff the size of the pattern piece. Using contrasting fabric, Cut the inner cuff about an inch wider and about an inch longer than the outer cuff (interface wrong sides of both inner and outer cuff). Right sides of cuff pieces are shown below.

 --Center the smaller outer cuff on top of the larger inner cuff, Right Sides Together, align (match) one side of the long edges, and stitch a 1/4" seam along that one long edge, as shown below.

--Open the cuff, and Press the Seam Allowances toward the contrasting inner cuff. This is how it will look from the right side....

And this is how the pressed seam allowances will look from the wrong side...

(remember--the wrong sides have been interfaced)

 --Then WRAP (fold) the inner cuff OVER (around) the seam allowances, enclosing them.  The seam allowances are still pressed toward the inner (contrast) fabric...they are now "wrapped" (enclosed)  by the inner (contrast) cuff...

--Now, trim the excess contrast fabric so that the RAW edges are even...

--DONE!  This is the finished wrapped cuff, (the outer "public" side) ready to be sewn to the shirt sleeve...

and this is how the wrapped cuff looks from the inner (back) side (the side that will touch the wrist when the cuff is sewn to the shirt)...