Some Tips on sewing for Men.. measuring and construction
Ive been asked a number of times to provide sewing/construction hints and was unable to really offer the space needed on these web pages.
I am accepting construction and or sewing hints as a regular feature.
I will give credit to whom ever supplies this information and ask only that you not send copy righted information as from a sewing book or video unless you state in your OWN terms what the hint is and CREDIT your source.
Some tips for measuring and using DS for men:
First off bribe em to stand still for long enough. remind em its only an hr for a mark and measure and look at all the goodies they�ll be seeing from your sewing room!
Men don�t need bust darts.. so when making the sloper use the Fitted shirt rather than the 2 dart basic bodice.
Yes.. it has some ease.. but fit it snug !
The shoulder point is placed further out on the arm .. first find the dimple then walk the distance of HIS pointer finger width out toward the shldr tip.
When filling in the chart give him an AA or even A cup and a bust radius of a minimum of 1/2 inch (if he has a bust radius take the actual..)
When measuring the bust.. take the chest front over the �apex� points but move the tape up in the back at least 1 1/2 to 2 inches and take the bust back at this higher level. ADD
the front and back to get the total.
Men�s verticles have different math relationships than womens.. they also generally have flatter TUSHES.. so keeping the low hip on the low side of the area which you can proclaim as hip ( use a yardstick held verticle to the body.. where it touches first at the highest point is true hip but the yardstick usually covers more than a pin dot of space.. so go towards the bottom �third� of the part the stick touches.)
Always true the front and back.. if the ole boy has a pot belly the front is going to shape rounder than the back..so true the side seams to get your desired results.
DS patterns are STYLED for women.. so some manual hand drafting to get the STYLE you want off the basic fitted pattern may frequently be necessary.
For proper dress trousers the �break� point of the hem or cuff is generally set closer to the floor then womens.
Making a yoke is not hard.. take one of his better dress shirts that he LIKES and measure how far down from the shldr points .. center back neck the yoke comes.. draw a guide line on the finished pattern back.. cut the pattern piece and add seam allowances on both he upper and lower portions of the back .. for the action pleat in the back.. measure off his favorite.. and add that amount of pleating by adding to the middle of the lower back pattern piece. (these are usually the same on all men's wear)
Always cut the back yoke on the bias! and the balance of the back bodice on straight of grain.. this gives some added ease at their back shoulders for comfort.the back yoke should be lined!
Use the mandarin collar as a collar stand to make the 2 piece collar. (you may have to lengthen it a bit.. depends on how wide a button placket you'll be making.. so make sure to �walk� it around the jewel neck to see if you need to add length.. )
Button plackets as you know if you want to do a fold over method and want a 2 inch placket you have to set for 4 inches.. 1 1/2 inch needs to be set at 3 inch.. just double what you want as the finished result. The shirt overlap at cf IS accurate at 1 1/2 in.. but the placket needs to be doubled.
Elastic waist casual pants.. on men since there is generally a smaller difference between waists and hips may require you to use negative ease in the popup window at the waist!
Changing the pop up ease on the abd ONLY does nothing.. you need to change the abd plus waist or abd plus hip to get the results you want.
Good luck and have SEW much fun!
Kaaren Hoback, Dryden NY Sept 17,1999 � 1999