It's All In The Details!

 

A simple button down shirt, right? Oh, no. This shirt has a lot more substance than meets the eye and  is definitely worthy of discussion. 

There is a gentleman who I have the good fortune of knowing and he wears all of his shirts outside of his pants, dress shirts and casual. He will indicate exactly where the hem needs to be and bring them to me for conversion from classic shirttail hems to "untuck it" straight across, shorter type hems. In his case it is a physical issue and he likes nice clothing. He  is from the Western part of our country and this shirt above is a very nice shirt with a nod to that styling. It has no pearl buttons or pointed pocket flaps or yokes,  but has a tasteful, casual vibe and is made by a Western gear make, Noble Outfitters. They sell in boutiques out West. I was so impressed with the details on this shirt that I had to share. There was much all of us sewists could take away to elevate our own tops.  We'll start at the top. 

The pic above shows the inside of the collar band, made with a western themed cotton. Let's bullet this area:

*  Appropriately themed fabric for the collar band, nothing obvious but still referencing Western wear. 

*    Two rows of topstitching on the neck edge of the collar band. 

*    The collar band is interfaced with grosgrain ribbon with it's edge exposed, all the better to show it vibrant contrast. 

*    A grosgrain ribbon  for a loop to hang the shirt, ON  THE INSIDE. Love that, instead of on the outside. 

*     Plaids and manufacturer's label centered nicely. You will see this was made in Viet Nam and beautifully so. I can tell you this garment did not have one single short thread left from cutting that I could find anywhere. Everything was trimmed tightly and stitched to perfection. 

* Three eyelets embroidered on the collar stand  to allow for ventilation,  very cool,  IMO. 

Next on our journey is the inside of the upper chest area:

Each of the tiny buttons for the button down collar was backed with a tiny circle of thin felt to provide comfort for the wearer. 

On the outside of the back yoke the manufacturer has embroidered his logo over the pleat. He hasn't lost any opportunity to market his product on this shirt with embroidery as you will see.  I think he took a lesson from Guess jeans!

Let's move on to the sleeves:

Under each arm is a generous gusset, the better to lasso those cattle! Again, beautifully faux flat felled. 

The little black thread wisp was already on my ironing board from another project, not this one! The gusset is stitched with two rows of machine stitching and then serged over with a four thread serge. You will notice that it makes matching difficult for the side seams but CF matches beautifully. 

Check out the tower placket. It has double  "towers" and a bar tack at the corner. It is also extra long. I am thinking to accomate work gloves, maybe. There is a metal button halfway up the placket, again with logo and two buttons on the cuffs.  This way the cuff length can be adjusted for comfort by the wearer. On the outside of the opposite cuff is once again, another logo, just in case you forgot who made this great shirt. 

Here you can see the beautiful stitching on the button placket and the pocket. There is a pencil pocket inside the shirt pocket, all beautifully logo'd and topstitched. I dream of  topstitching and buttonholes like these. Sigh,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

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I hope you've enjoyed this tour of my friend's shirt. I found it pretty impressive and picked up some great details to try.  I will leave you with a pic of my beautiful, 8 foot tall Korean Lilac who just couldn't bloom enough! 5 years ago when we bought this house it was a scraggly dieing bunch of a couple of sticks which the owner suggested we pull out. But gardeners have faith and hope and give love. Look at her now!......Happy Sewing,,,Bunny