Old Fashioned, that’s my Ry

The Negroni is done! Yet Ry is more of an Old Fashioned guy, into rye whiskey over gin. I’m pretty pleased with the way this turned out. I stitched up a size small muslin then made a few adjustments. As you can see, he’s tall and slender. I lengthened the body by 1″ and the sleeves by 5/8″. Ry also has shoulders on the narrow side, but slightly rounded. Therefore, I graded the back and yoke to add 5/8″ at the shoulder seam, down to nothing at the armpit. I don’t know if this was the correct adjustment, but it’s what I did. Posture police reprimanded “stand up straight” more than once, but I don’t have the best posture myself. If we have kids, they’d better watch out!

Those are the only real changes I made to the pattern. Construction wise, I opted for a traditional flat felled seam on the shoulders, instead of the Colette method. I stitched a basting line 1/4″ around sleeve, then pressed to wrong side. Stitched sleeve to shirt WRONG sides together, standard 5/8″. Trimmed shirt SA, folded over the previously pressed arm SA, then edgestitched/topstitched in place. For the all-in-one side and sleeves, I simplified things by sewing right sides together, serging SAs together, then pressed them to the back. I then stitched them down from the inside for a faux flat felled seam. I really didn’t want to bother with pins as the sleeve narrowed at the wrist, and my serged seam avoided that.

Ry likes a single pocket, unless it’s a western-style or short sleeve shirt. So that’s what Ryan gets! No flap, no loop, and I cut the pocket and back yoke on the bias. The inner back yoke was cut on the straight grain for stability. You might recognize the main fabric from my jeans’ pockets.

The accent fabric came from a pair of BR boxers I’d given him when we first started dating. Not that he even wears boxers, but I loved the stripes! Anyway, the elastic was long gone and he’d finally tossed them. I swooped in for the rescue, as I still love the stripe. He’s probably embarrassed as hell that this is now public knowledge. I’ll make it up to him. Was a bit concerned about all this flair – my husband is more of an understated guy and leaves the wild color up to me. But he insisted he likes the pattern mixing! The red snaps were an eBay snag, and I almost wanted to save them for a more western version of this shirt. (I forgot to take out some basting stitches here.)

Here’s what I’ll change in future renditions:

• collar stand, especially for a long-sleeve version
• fold over button placket; the facing is okay, but a fold over would definitely be better on a dress shirt, IMO
• western-style back yoke & pocket flaps
• keep the collar as-is for a short sleeve version, and do a real flat felled side seam
• may widen the cuff for two buttons, and make the circumference a smidge larger

Thanks for being such a sport, baby! And I totally deserved my classic line being tossed back at me. One quick glance at the photos and wrinkles, and I heard “you’re the photographer and stylist!”