Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Henry Shirt Sew-Along, Day Five -- here she goes

Day Five, Henry Shirt Sew Along. This was a tough day for me! Tough but ultimately really satisfying, because everything works out. And by the end of this, your shirt is really allllmost a shirt. Miracle of mircales!

The agenda today is sewing together the yoke and sleeves. Ladies and gentlemen, can I say, until this day a "yoke" to me was always the pretty yellow inside part of an egg. Apparently, it also is what you call the upper back (and front?) part of a shirt, the part that connects the two sleeves. I figured that out a while ago, but I'd never sewn one before, and I'm just throwing it out there for anyone who is nearly as clueless as me. You're welcome.

So yoke and sleeves. I took many photos of the various steps (Steps 14 through 25 in the rad book Sewing for Boys) but the problem is this: I made a major mistake in this sewing round. I misread the diagram that shows how to pin and sew the yoke pieces to the bod. I actually misread the directions as well. My problem was I stopped stitching things together when I hit the seam on the underside of the arm.

Let me show you. 


SEE?!?!  This is where I stopped, leaving my front panels flapping in the breeze.

I don't know why I didn't get this. When rereading, I see that the diagram is really very clear, as are the directions. I guess it just comes down to never having made a garment like this, and to sewing at night or with kids running around. Distracted and clueless -- this is the result!


It wouldn't have been such a big deal, but I moved forward and stitched my arm holes together.

 
Then I took these photos, all proud of myself.


But yeah, the yoke front is still not attached. I thought that was happening at the same time that the collar would be sewn on.

It wasn't until I started work on that that I realized DUH I was supposed to stitch the whole yoke together. HAHAHA!  And I could no longer turn the shirt inside-out properly, because I'd closed up the arm holes.

Thank God for ye old seam ripper, my truest of true friends.


Ah, there. That's better.

Come back tomorrow when we'll attach the collar. And things don't go nearly as wrong there as you'd expect after this!

Don't forget to check in on Leila at Bilingual Baby. Her shirt is looking killer!

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