Construction
I followed a pretty standard shirt construction order;
- stitched darts
- constructed sleeve plackets
- attached yoke to fronts and back
- attached sleeves using flat felled seam – have been using 1cm seam allowance, was very fiddly for this particular feature so in future will need more here
- sewed up sides and down sleeves using French seams (wrong sides together, stitch, press, trim, turn, then right sides together, stitch catching raw edge inside seam)
- constructed concealed button placket (might write up later)
- sewed buttonholes
- constructed and attached collar – I managed to construct the collar the wrong way round making attaching it tricky but not impossible. Would also look at seam allowances here
- constructed and attached cuffs
- stitched on buttons using machine, taping button down with sellotape to keep steady (love this, it’s super fast)
- hemmed by pinning up, stitching, then same again to hide raw edges
Notes on the block
I felt the upper back was very large on Winifred Aldrich’s men’s tailored shirt block – I had to reduce it by around 3cm after making the toile. However, I feel the ease allowance is very generous across the board within the Metric Pattern Cutting series of books (in the blocks I have used anyway). I have adjusted the ease I allow for the womenswear blocks but will have to work on more menswear to work out if it requires similar.
Looks a bit shiny from the flash – isn’t in real life.
toile & trouble 
hi, id like to asked you something. I tried to draft the pattern for the forth edition of Winifred Aldrich and i got stuck on the sleeves. Its saying on the 0-2 sleeve legth +6 minus the cuff depth and yoke width, so i came up with, 75+6=81 -6 (cuff depth) 33,5 yoke width and i have 41,5, that doesnt seem right… can you please help me?
I remember this being problematic for me too! Some of the Aldrich instructions can be a bit vague/difficult to interpret.
I think it might actually mean yoke depth (look at 0-13 on the sleeve diagram – I know you won’t have reached that point yet, but it may equal 13-15 on the body block, or thereabouts).
I think I just ignored it and estimated complete sleeve length from shoulder point to where it will join the cuff. I checked a men’s shirt to make sure I was about right. It’s most likely you will need to adjust to the sleeve length and overall fit anyway so I wouldn’t worry too much.
41.5 does sound like a very short sleeve, something is definitely wrong in those instructions. I worked out that the sleeve on a medium sized men’s shirt, minus cuff depth, fall mainly around 60cm. I have also found the Aldrich blocks come out quite large compared to the syle of clothes we wear today.
Hope that helps!
I got a question about the sleeve as well, about how to sew the sleeve to the bodice. As you said the upper back is very large in comparison to the front. And in my completed pattern of the bodice and sleeve, the armcye measurement on the back bodice is more than the front whereas on the sleeve the difference is much less pronounced. shouldnt the center notch on the sleeve(point 0) match the shoulder seam of the front and back bodice sewn together?
sorry for the rookie question, but i really hope you can help.
thanks in advance.
Hi Samuel, I often struggle with sleeve heads too. I’ve had a look at the block instructions, and this is what I think might be your problem.
Usually the top of the sleeve head (point 0 in this case) would match the shoulder seam. However, the yoke on a shirt means the normal shoulder line is lost as the yoke moves the back/front seam slightly to the front of the shoulder. Unfortunately, the Aldrich instructions don’t say where to mark the notch for the sleeve head. I think what I have done in the past is measure the whole line of the armscye on my pattern, divide it by two, and mark the resulting measurement on the back bodice/yoke. It’s probably not the “correct” way, but it has worked so far!
That makes sense, I will give it a try. Thank you very much