When ever I see lists of the best clothing items to have in ones closet, white shirts are always featured.I have been following the Runway shows on Style.com, and shirts are featured a lot. It is one of the most versatile pieces of clothing and can be worn casually everyday, or as dramatic evening wear. For example:

Casual wear.

Evening wear.

I wanted to add a white shirt to my wardrobe and I had Katherine Tilton’s Vogue 8748 (out of print) on my ‘to make’ list so it was perfect for this project.

I chose a cotton broadcloth from my in house fabric store, (don’t we all have one of those) as it would show details well and would be comfortable to wear. After spending some time bonding with the pattern I made the following additions. Because the design is very loose fitting I added some stitched diagonal tucks to the front and back to add the illusion of shape. I was really pleased how this turned out and it was easy. I auditioned some tucks on a piece of the fabric while making my decision by ironing creases in the fabric to see what would work best. I did not want a true bias as I thought it might stretch so as math was never one of my strong points I am not sure what the angle is.
This is what that looked like.

My next addition was to the collar. Because I have short hair I like a high collar. I added a second collar, using the original pattern piece for the neckline edge, but just made it slightly smaller to eliminate bulk. I love this and see many possibilities for this idea.

The next change was to the sleeve. After adding the tucks I made a cuff similar to the collar addition . I made the cuff, sewed the right side to the wrong side of the sleeve and after serging the seam, flipped it to the right side. This eliminated the need for a facing and the seam was hidden by the cuff. I added the cuff before I sewed the sleeve to the body of the shirt. I first learned about ‘piecework’ as it was called on my first job out of high school making Wrangler jeans and shirts in Ireland. A lot of details are finished first then the main pieces are put together. Here’ the finished sleeve.

I finished the rest of the shirt as per pattern directions. I couldn’t make my mind up what buttons to use but I actually like the simplicity of my ‘bridal buttons’.
Here I am in my finished shirt.

Here are some other ideas for your pleasure.

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