It has all the important features that he's particular about ~ front band, collar stand, collar stay. I explained that if he can master this pattern, anything after this will be easy.
He narrowed down the fabric choices to this white/lavendar stripe.
This small stripe won't be difficult for him to work with. It will actually help in locating the straight of grain. It was washed/ironed and is ready, but I am having him make a muslin first.
My DH spent a few days reading sections of Shirtmaking by David Page Coffin and a 1926 edition of Tailored Garments by Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences on tailored shirts. I did research on wearing ease for a man's shirt. Scott R Robinson, Designer and Instructor in Theater Arts at Central Washington University states that a classic shirt should have 3" of wearing ease at the chest. A fitted shirt should have 1 1/2" - 2 1/2" inches of wearing ease. I took DH's measurements after I had him watch this video. Never even thought about the watch.
Since my DH feels this pattern is so nice, I had him preserve it by having him trace each piece instead of using the originals. I put the cutting table near his work bench, so he would feel more confortable. At first, he did a lot of complaining about having to trace the pattern. Something like, it would be cheaper to buy a new pattern than use up his time. Blah, blah, blah! I had him iron each original pattern piece, and showed him how easy it is to trace. That you don't have to mark everything. So we proceed to trace the large pieces together. I went on to do other things and came back to this.
What an amazing job! A little obsessive, but amazing. If he keeps this up, he is going to have one beautiful shirt. Each pattern piece is now cut ready for the muslin fabric.
