Men's Shirt Sew-Along 16 -- New and Final Negroni with Alterations

Friends, it may seem hard to believe, but we're now in the final portion of our Men's Shirt Sew-Along, which started February 1.  I can't remember when we weren't sewing shirts together.  Which reminds me -- Have you started yet?

First we learned how to construct the Negroni shirt according to the original instructions, and created a muslin, or for some, a very wearable practice garment.

Next, I showed you how to turn the Negroni shirt, which has a one-piece camp collar, into a more traditional dress shirt with collar stand and collar and front button placket. 

Finally, we reviewed some basic alterations, which we'll continue today as I begin my third and final version of the Negroni with my new floral fantasy fashion fabric.

This last Wednesday I talked about the alterations Kenneth King guided me through to address a sloping shoulder, using my vintage Butterick men's shirt pattern, 4712.

Today, I'd like to share the alterations we made to the Negroni pattern.  The overall fit of the size Small wasn't bad, but the shoulder seam was past my true shoulder -- a common problem, I'm noticing -- which is the pivot point at the top of the shoulder.  We narrowed the shoulder width -- which meant making changes to the front, the back, and yoke, AND the sleeve.



In the photo above, the area of shading is the portion of the old shoulder seam that will be transferred to the sleeve cap -- this is what Kenneth refers to as "no net change," i.e., no actual fabric is being subtracted, but rather transferred to a new area.  The new seam line is marked in purple and blue (to which a seam allowance will be added).

Now look at the new sleeve:



The shaded portion is what was transferred from shoulder to sleeve cap. 

Look at the difference in the width of the yokes -- the new yoke on top, the old yoke below.



A subsequent change was to raise the armhole slightly, based on my preference.



This resulted in a narrower armhole and meant shortening the sleeve circumference, which we did by slicing the sleeve piece in the center and lapping one side over the other until the measurements were roughly equal, with 1/2" extra length in the sleeve as ease.   Retraced it looks like this:



We'll see how this turns out.

I am now working on my new version, and I invite you to follow my progress here.  The photos may serve as a reminder of how the Negroni is constructed and provide new views of some of the techniques we used in making our muslin.







Friends, that's it for today.  As always, there are exciting new versions of Negroni, as well as shirts made from other patterns, appearing daily in our Flickr group.  If you have questions about fit, please post photos of your muslins there.

In other news, bouffant dress fans will be happy to hear that I was able to snag another four yards of my $2/yd. rose print (which makes seven all together) which should be more than enough for a poofy party dress for Cathy or play clothes for the the entire Von Trapp family. 



Have a great day, everybody!