Making a Shirt - Part 2: Folding and Pressing

Welcome back to my process for making a men's dress shirt.  I've chosen fabrics, preshrunk and ironed, and cut the pieces using a pattern taken from a ready-to-wear shirt I already own.  Now it's time to start construction and I start not at the sewing machine but at the ironing board.

When I make shirts, I like to do all of the pressing I can while I'm at the iron and then do all the sewing that I can, something that's different from pants and jackets.  That means working on different parts, seemingly out of order.  In tailoring pants and jackets, it's more about press, sew, press, sew, press...

So, the first step will be to press in front plackets and facings, front pockets, back pleats, sleeve pleats, and fold the sleeve plackets.  Also, I like to give each piece a good pressing with starch (I use spray starch), especially areas that will be folded.  This will all set the stage for stitching later on.

FRONTS

First up, front pockets.  I cut two potential left front pockets:  one on a 60° bias and one on the vertical stripe.  When I cut out the pieces I left 1 1/2" on the top which gets folded twice for a 3/4" hem and 1/2' on the other sides to fold in.  On the bias I folded the piece in half and cut a 60° angle on the bottom - from fold to side

That diagonal line from bottom left corner is a 60° angle

Cut off the angle

To get this shape.  I then starched, folded, and pressed the bias pocket...

Top hem -- BTW, the fabric is wrong side up to fold the right side to the wrong side

Fold hem in half again to get a finished edge.

Fold and press remaining sides at 1/2".  I've made a template out of a file folder with various widths marked, which works great for pressing folds.

I ended up with this, which I think is too small for my pocket

It's just about 4" wide (at the top) by 4" long (in the center), which is a bit skimpy.  So, I did the same folding process with my vertical striped piece and came up with this

This one is 5" x 5" which is better sized.  To get the bottom detail, I folded the fabric in half vertically then cut off a diagonal piece that was 1 1/2" up from the bottom and 1 1/2" in from the open side.

On to the left front.  To fold in the placket place the left front face up and measure out from center front (which is clipped to mark it)

Clip showing my center front marking

Measuring 3/4" from center front to find first folding line (the green part of the ruler on on center front)

Or, using my folding template I put the 3/4" line on my center front clip marking.  Fold the fabric back toward the center front (if there is a wrong side it would now be showing) and press, making sure that the folding line is even all the way down the shirt front...

For the next fold, measure twice the offset, in this shirt 1 1/2" from the folded edge and fold that away from the shirt (right side will now be face up)

Press that fold in

Now, flip everything over to the back side

And fold back toward the shirt along the previous fold line...to get this

Then fold under 1 1/2 (or twice the center front offset amount) and press

To get this finished placket

It's a bit hard to see, but notice the triple green vertical lines toward the left side...that's the edge of the placket.

Here's the same process with the red/blue striped shirt, but with 5/8" offset and 1 1/4" wide placket

Folded and pressed left front placket.

For the right front, it's much the same, except start from the back/wrong side, fold back the offset amount, then fold and tuck under twice the offset amount...

Folded right front from the right side.

BACK

On to the back piece.  For the blue/green striped shirt I'm putting in a center box pleat.  First, fold the back piece in half, wrong sides together, lining up the clips I made for the box pleat when I cut out the back

And then pin (or stitch about 1/2") the pieces together at the clips

Open the back flat and then schmush the pleat down from the fold, like this

Then, I use a sewer's best friend:  Steam-A-Seam to keep the folds together.

At the sewing machine, I'll put in a few stitches in the seam allowance to keep the pleat neat before sewing on the yokes.  Here's a view of what the box pleat looks like from the inside...

As a style tip, there's nothing that says you couldn't put the box of the pleat to the inside and have this for the outside/right side of the fabric.  Probably isn't very common (I'm not sure I've seen it in ready to wear), but that's the benefit of making your own clothes, I guess.

On the red/blue striped shirt, I have 3/4" pleats on the sides of the back.  These are quite easy.  First bring the clip marks together, then open up the larger side, and press so that the pleat is going from the center of the back toward the sides, like this

Pleat going from center back (the left in this photo) to the side.  Notice the pleat underneath lies toward the center.  Again, you could have the pleat go the other way, but that's not very common, either.  Like the center box pleat, I also put a little bit of Steam-A-Seam under the folds to keep them in place until I get to the sewing machine.

SLEEVES

For the sleeves, I have one pleat to add at the wrist/cuff end.  Just like the pleat above, bring the clips together and then open the larger side and press the pleat in place.  The pleat should go from the center of the sleeve toward the slit/placket and back of the sleeve.

Sleeve right side up

Fold clips for pleat together

Open so that the pleat goes from center (the left side in this photo) to back of the sleeve.

This is the pleat for the right sleeve

And this is the pleat for the left sleeve.

The last thing to press now is the sleeve plackets.  The sleeve plackets cover the opening in the sleeve toward the back of the sleeve.  There are six folds to press in at this stage.  I've put the pattern piece back onto the placket to show the fold lines

The two lines on the left, the two lines on the right and the X in the "tower" are where we fold.  First, lay the piece wrong side up and fold the two shorter lines

Then fold the outer long side

Then fold the other long fold, which brings the short side over the long side

Then fold the X in the tower

And this is what it should look like from the other side

Repeat for the other side, but remember the "tower" will be opposite of this one (you need one for the left and one for the right).  Same process for the red/blue striped shirt.

That's all of the folding and pressing for now.  Next up is actual sewing!