Sewing the Seventies with McCall's 5678

McCall's 5678 sounds like a made up pattern number--5,6,7,8--really, McCalls?  Maybe it's my lucky number?  However, the next number is not so encouraging.  There are 10 pattern pieces to the shirt, but two are interfacing pieces.  Of course, a standard shirt pattern with buttons, cuffs, and collar will have that many or more.  Since this is a "Henley" style, half-placket shirt, the front is all one piece.  That may make it simpler.  Simpler still is the absence of a pocket.  Never mind.  There's a similar pattern with a pocket.  It has short sleeves, which is why I didn't choose it for this flannel shirt.  This flannel is appropriate for winter/spring as it is a very light flannel.  That brings me to the details about the pattern and the fabric:  an almost flannel from a fancy New York fabric retailer, Fabrics and Fabrics.  

The plaid flannel yarn-dyed cotton shirting, yellow/teal, 4 1/2 yards, 42" wide, was purchased for a total of $37.80. The pattern is actually 1977, dangerously close to the 80s.  Even so, there are at least a couple of reasons to like the 1977 pattern.  For one, it has the cute little rulers printed on the lengthen/shorten lines. 

For another, the notches are marked and instructed to be cut to the outside of the cut lines, just as I learned to do when I began sewing and as I still prefer to do. 

Third, and this may be a dislike, it has the buttons on the right side.  I was going to change it but my general rule for a toile is to first make it as is and alter later to improve fit or correct problems.  As far as the other shirt pattern that is so similar, the one with the pocket, the buttons are on the left side as is usual for women's clothing.  The placement here must be a design choice.  However, the pattern layout drawings for M5678 also have the plackets cut on doubled fabric in some cases, even though the pattern pieces are marked Cut 1.  Since there is that small error in the layout, the reversed placket could be an error as well.  After some consideration, my final decision was to go with it as is.  Here's that other shirt pattern, the one with the pocket, such a cute pocket.

On the plus side of design in 5678, the shoulder seams sit forward and are enclosed in the back yoke.  Also, there's a collar stand but no collar.  It follows my mandarin collar theme.  

After the right placket (button band) was attached, the plaid was matched by pure luck.  Meaning, it matches because it folds over the opposite way than I thought it did.  There's a lot of top stitching on the band, starting with the tab.

In sewing the button hole band, there is a tab that extends over the outside of the shirt, over a box pleat and over the end of the button band.  In this case, the tab should be the same size as the band to ensure it is wide enough to cover the pleats and the button band.  (Yes, this note is here because I stitched it wrong, resulting in a tab that is 1/8" narrower than the band.  I compensated for the difference by making the pleat narrower.)

The pleat hits me right at my waist.  As a result, the fullness from the pleat is somewhat unflattering. It may draw attention to my belly? If so, it could be stitched down for some distance to minimize the effect.

The shoulder seams and collar went together next.  Finally, the sleeves and the hem.  The sleeves were difficult.  In the end, there were three sleeves cut (living up to the name of this blog).  The fabric was a little off-grain.  The grain line on the pattern matched no other lines on the sleeve.  Due to the pattern lines, the plaid on the shirt would not line up with the plaid on the sleeves.  With all these factors, the best solution was to just try to line up the most obvious point.  The first set of sleeves had the plaid lined up at the sleeve seam notches.  However, once they were both sewn in, the more obvious point was the top of the shoulders--especially since one sleeve matched there better than the other.  With a third sleeve replacing the mismatched one, the obvious mismatch is only a little less obvious.  That is enough for me.  My most successful outcome would be to have the plaid line up across the sleeves and the body.  As it is, it appears to line up at some angles and the plaid is matched across the side seams of the body.

The end of this cut of fabric is off grain and won't be made straight.  Probably hanging it to dry was a bad idea.  It must be washed again and dried flat, perhaps after a bit of a tumble dry.  Even then it may not be usable, which is a disappointment. There's enough for a pair of pants or shorts which would be nice to have if this shirt becomes a secret pajama top.  To save more fabric for a pants project and to avoid using off grain fabric in an obvious spot, there will not be a pocket added to this shirt.  It looks a little too busy for one, anyway.

The really cute buttons were a surprise find at my local fabric store.  They are 3/16" too large and a little too thick.  Since they came 3 to a card, I opted to use plain brown buttons for the cuffs.  

The cuffs were cut a little off grain, along with the sleeves.  The cuffs can only match the sleeves horizontally because the sleeve is gathered. The two sleeves almost ended at the same point in the plaid. One sleeve was sewn 1/8" shorter to make the cuff sit at the same point of the plaid.  The cuffs are lined up along the prominent plaid line (the gold one).  

Heavy duty black thread was used for the cuff buttonholes (dark brown buttons) and Coats and Clark dark blue thread for the placket buttonholes (gold and blue buttons.)  My machine seems more prone to error on successive buttonholes.  It might be best to turn it off or at least clear the stitch between buttonholes.  This mostly means that the machine should be watched closely so it can be turned off once it errors.  If it is caught in time, the stitches are easily picked out and the buttonhole can be redone.  This time, there was only a 1/4" of stitches to be picked out.

It is a little 80s.  There's room for shoulder pads, but -- NO.

The hems are not quite straight on grain but look ok.  The pattern instructions call for the hemming first, then turning under the edge of the slits on each side.  I am not sure that this is my preference, but it does hide the edge of the hem.

All in all, it turned out to be one of my better makes, especially in seasonality.  Plaid shirts and jeans was the uniform of the day wherever I went.