If at first you don't succeed, toile, toile again. However, I wonder if I am just charging on, making whatever I please with whatever fabric I please and using the excuse when it turns out less than expected: oh, this was a toile. Still, it is a very pretty toile.
This piece of fabric was 2 1/2 yards of plaid cotton blend, 60" wide. This fabric was milled in Italy for a NY designer. When it came in the mail, it was 15 oz. total weight, 90" long, actually nearly 3 yards, for a total price of $13. Fabric Mart described it as a Dusty Lavender/Dark Avocado/Dusty Rust/Black Cotton/Polyester Yarn-Dyed Plaid, $5.25/yd. Since it was initially very stiff, it was described as "will stand away from body". At that point, it stood up on its own. After it was machine washed and dried it softened to a taffeta-like consistency and remained 60" wide and over 2 1/2 yards long. This is an unbalanced plaid so it was cut to flow from one piece to the next rather than plaid matching the pieces in the usual way.
The first task was cutting out the fronts in the appropriate spots on the plaid to allow the plackets to fall in the black vertical portions. The pockets are to be cut on the bias. That is necessary because the dart lies under the pocket, making it impossible to match the plaid all the way around. Instead, these are cut to match the front. The bias cut did not look right in this unbalanced plaid. The first pocket was sewed on the left front, starting at the corner immediately above the dart. Lining up the plaid there put the mis-alignment on the side of the pocket toward the center. The right-front pocket is marginally better aligned but brought to my attention that the plaid is not quite square.
Note: The pockets are small, about 4" square.
Cutting out the back, a large piece, made it obvious that the plaid is not quite square. Probably why this was considered deadstock, perhaps another term for designer cast offs. The difficulties in cutting made it apparent that plaid is not a good option for a toile, as it puts too much work into something that may not fit and may not be worth adjusting. The yoke was cut horizontally, per instructions.
The sleeves seemed long, so they were shortened by 3". Plaid matching is a guess, trying to put the prominent black stripe somewhere along the armhole since most of the front armhole sits in that stripe. In hindsight, the stripes alongside (or below) the black should have been the point of match--maybe matching the sleeve notch would work? The sleeves are too short, but not drastically so since the shoulders hang over about an inch.
Note: the continuous lap needs to be cut longer than the pattern piece. The sleeves should be a couple of inches longer, but not as long as the pattern piece.
Plackets are on. No real problems, except to say that sewing the right side of the placket to the wrong side of the shirt and then folding it over to the right side makes it quite difficult to cut it out so that the plaid matches. As far as mods, there is only one line of topstitching because this shirt is less western and my topstitching skills are not that good yet. Cutting out the band and collar, cutting the interfacing, and then fusing it on took as long as sewing the collar and attaching the band to the shirt. Collar, buttonholes, buttons, all done with no problems except that the buttons are hand wash only. I wash my clothes in cold water and hang to dry. However, the buttons may not be a problem unless the shirt is worn frequently. That is doubtful because it is still quite stiff and a bit confining. The fabric has the feel of rip-stop nylon--high quality nylon, like a rain jacket.
Hmm, the verdict is pending on this shirt. (the color in the photo above is off) It looks good to me. If it turns out to be more comfy than it currently seems, it would be possible to cut off the short sleeves, thereby reducing the shoulder overhang, and add longer sleeves. There is enough fabric left to make another set of sleeves and cuffs. Extra fabric is a good thing!
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