Beginnings in Haberdashery

We've recently begun to venture into the "dangerous" world of men's clothing. Actually I quite like it - everything is, for the most part, straight forward and simple. Not nearly as fiddly as women's clothing.

 It all started out with a simple cravat for our friend Chris' birthday.

I really had no clue where to start. Thankfully I can usually count on The Sewing Academy to help me out with problems like these. This thread in particular enlightened me quite a bit. I had little time to do much more digging so we decided to wing it. Michelle donated a strip of her gorgeous, teal, silk taffeta to the cause (from the great fabric.com sale a couple years back). :) And this is what we whipped up. He seemed to like it quite alot so we're counting it as a win. ;)

Shortly after our friend, Dave, commissioned a civilian shirt and 2 cravats.

For the shirt I started off with Laughing Moon #107 as a base. I made several modifications tho -most of which are listed in this post. I squared the bottom and left the side seam open about 4 inches. Then finished it with a simple hem. When I put the front placket in I simply cut the pointed end off and made it squared instead. For the placket on the sleeves I used the seam rather then cutting a slit for a separate one. Also on the back I gathered it to the yoke all the way across rather then just on the edges like the instructions say to. Had the lengthen the sleeves a bit too...  

I wish I'd had some bigger china buttons, but these are what I had on hand and I have such a hard time finding good ones that match. :-/ 

It was about 95% hand sewn. I find myself liking hand sewing more and more every time I do it... :)

 

In the meantime my good friend, Jasper, educated me more on cravats. He's extremely well versed on men's clothing and never ceases to be really helpful. :)

 I order some silk from Fabrics & Trims. The green I received - I ended up not using, but who doesn't like have some extra taffeta laying around. ;) The shot burgundy/black on the other hand was so lovely and worked out wonderfully. A kind lady sent me the perfect dark green for the other one. We all, immediately fell in love with it and wanted dresses out of it - so crisp and such a deep, rich color. Much to our disappointment there was only a enough for a few cravats. ;D The fun thing about cravats is that there is very few limits. So we have fun experimenting with all the different tips and options. I've been trying to remember how to tie them several ways. Its not as easy as it looks. lol

We're currently studying up on waistcoats - I've been told they are worse to make then jackets so I'm eager to see how it works out. :) Might also try our hands at pre-tied cravats - that shouldn't be to difficult since we make our selves pre-tied bows fairly often.

Love,
Brooke