Man's Latin Shirt Pattern

[Dancebug]

My partner is bugging me to make a Latin shirt for him. Can anybody recommend a simple pattern? I am looking for a simple dress shrit-looking one, and I will use lycra fabric and add underpants. Also if there are any details I need to pay attention to, please let me know. (I have never made any man's stuff.)
Thank you.

[Chris Stratton]

Shirts can be a pain. Though stretch fabric (if you are used to working with it) can make things easier. The biggie is going to be the collar.

Was up quite a bit of last night trying to finish a dress shirt compatible with after-work dance practice... I'd spent months looking for nice solid color shirting fabrics at affordable prices - and finally found them:

Quality 100% cotton sheet seperates on sale! A generous twin flat sheet makes two short sleeve shirts or one long sleeve and almost a short sleeve. And it's far cheaper than buying by the yard.

But still having some pattern issues.

[Laura]

Dancebug, since it's a latin shirt you can get away with something very simple for your first try. Check out the patterns at KwikSew.com -- they have things like men's shortie unitards and fitted t-shirts that can be made into Latin shirts with the appropriate fabric and decoration choices.

[Chris Stratton]

With the exception of the collar, you could just enlarge and square up a bodysuit pattern to be a comfortable unstretched fit (try using a well fitting polo or T-shirt for dimensional reference), assemble it as usual and then modify from there. You may want to flatten the sleeve caps some so the sleeves sit more horizontally, but probably not as much as you'd need to for standard wear.

For a collar you'd probably want to look at dress shirts or at least polo shirts for examples - though the later often use something other than the fabric used for the shirt body.

[tacad]

Shirts can be a pain. Though stretch fabric (if you are used to working with it) can make things easier. The biggie is going to be the collar.

Was up quite a bit of last night trying to finish a dress shirt compatible with after-work dance practice... I'd spent months looking for nice solid color shirting fabrics at affordable prices - and finally found them:

Quality 100% cotton sheet seperates on sale! A generous twin flat sheet makes two short sleeve shirts or one long sleeve and almost a short sleeve. And it's far cheaper than buying by the yard.

But still having some pattern issues.
I love ingenuity! Is using sheets an old trick or did you come up with it recently?

[Joe]

Sheets is an old trick. Getting old sheets at yard sales is also a good way to get cheap material for muslins. :)

[pygmalion]

I thought I was the only one who did that. Learned it from my Mom, who's been using flat sheets to make everything from curtains, to pillow-cases, to quilt linings, to clothing for decades. She read about that trick from a sewing books back in the early seventies, I believe.

Of course, she was already predisposed to do it, since she grew up during the Depression, when everything was recycled. As a child, a lot of pillowcases and diapers were made from flour and sugar sacks and old sheets (the sheets with holes in the middle still make a nice pillowcase.) So it's a great trick, but it's not at all new. 8) :lol:

[Chris Stratton]

Buying new sheets for the purpose seemed a bit... wrong somewhow. But in reality, it's a cheaper source of quality fabric than any I'd been able to find. Economies of scale probably - retail fabric probably has a lot of markups since it must move slowly. And cotton solids are most likely primarily for crafts and quilting which are low quantity - prices aren't too bad sometimes, but quality is very low unless getting more expenisve quiliting stuff.

A flat sheet on sale was $8 - these were generous so at least three yards of fabric (really closer to about five for some patterns) That's about walmart price for low quality broadcloth. At the normal price of $13 it still beats quilt shop pricing of over $5 a yard.

Of course real shirting is in the $30 range... because the things are so labor intensive that there's no point in economizing unless you are just fooling around. Oh, and real shirting doesn't seem to come in cool solid colors.

[tacad]

Very cool. :wink:

[pygmalion]

Buying new sheets for the purpose seemed a bit... wrong somewhow. But in reality, it's a cheaper source of quality fabric than any I'd been able to find. Economies of scale probably - retail fabric probably has a lot of markups since it must move slowly. And cotton solids are most likely primarily for crafts and quilting which are low quantity - prices aren't too bad sometimes, but quality is very low unless getting more expenisve quiliting stuff.

A flat sheet on sale was $8 - these were generous so at least three yards of fabric (really closer to about five for some patterns) That's about walmart price for low quality broadcloth. At the normal price of $13 it still beats quilt shop pricing of over $5 a yard.

Of course real shirting is in the $30 range... because the things are so labor intensive that there's no point in economizing unless you are just fooling around. Oh, and real shirting doesn't seem to come in cool solid colors.

I wonder how high thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets would work for shirting. You can sometimes find those at very low prices, if you watch out for white sales. :wink: 8)

[Chris Stratton]

Since I finally turned out a dress shirt that could be mistaken for purchased, a few notes - not sure how many of these will translate to a latin shirt, but anyway.

- I have a lot of respect for the empolyees of the third world sweat shops that normally do this work. It took me probably 5 hours to make one shirt, and that was one with short sleeves hence no sleeve plackets. And to think we can buy this product for as little as $12. Yes, a lot could be done more efficiently in an industrial setting, but sewing precisely is still sewing precisely.

I started by making the plackets on oversize fronts, then cutting them based on the placket edge. Then I cut out the back and yokes, in all cases leaving the neck and arm opening uncut.

I assembled the inner and outer yoke to the back, then stuffed the back and each front inside and did the front yoke seams inside out as well. With a wide yoke this works, with a narrow one you have no choice to topstitch the front or back seam from the outside. Topstitching may still be desireable, but this way it isn't required.

I then pressed the splayed-out front, back, and yoke. I made a seperate unified pattern piece defining the arm and neck holes, so that I could then cut them from the assembled front, yoke, and back. This is much more precise than cutting them on the individual pieces, since the openings can't grow or shrink if the yoke seam is off a little bit. It also minimizes handling after the edges are cut, which could cause them to stretch out of shape.

I made a two piece collar with stand, and little stay pockets in the collar points. both pieces are based on fusible interfacing cut to finished size. This goes on one layer, then I sew around it, grade seam allowances, and turn inside out. Collar is made first, turned and pressed. Then the seam allowance is trimmed to 1/4" on the lower edge. Collar stand pieces have their allowance trimmed 1/4" above it's interfacing and about left long below. Collar is sandwidched between inside out layers of stand, edges matched through the allowances and sewn. Then I turn the stand right side out and press it, so that the collar to stand seam is just on the inside edge of the stand. I press the stand seam allowance inside along the line defined by the stand interfacing of what will be the outside, then press the allowance of the other side in to match, only making the inside overhang the outside a tiny amount. I toptstitch through the stand about 3/8" in from the edge, fixing the inner and outer layers in place and leaving a groove at the lower edge.

I had cut the neckline seam with 1/4" allowance. I chalk or temporarily mark a line 1/4" back from this, then mark the center back of both collar stand and the yoke. matching the backs, I slide the neckline edge between the layers of the stand, pinning it all in place. Because I carefully measured the neckline and stand lengths, it only required a slight adjustmunt of the depth of insertion to get the overall lengths to match. Then I topstitch through the collar stand, catching the shirt body inside. (The slight overlap of the inside edge of the band is to insure that topstitching done from the outside catches the inside edge of the band).

Sleeves. I made sure the sleeve pattern as about an inch longer on each end than the arm hole, since it's easier to trim off excess than sew on gussets to cover a shortfall. It's easiest to do the sleeves before the sideseams, so that you have more room to work. I sew the sleeves on working out from the middle in both directions, using a 1/2" seam allowance. I then cut the allowance on the body side to 1/4" and carefully fold the allowance from the sleeve over this, trapping it. I'm able to set this entire felled seam by pressing it, then topstitch it from the inside to create a slightly "cheater" but fairly effective flat felled seam that looks to be what is used on a lot of ready-to-wear. The sideseams and sleeve seam can then be sewn the same way, and optionally felled as well, though the topstitching of a long sleeve is tricky - easier to do it after the placket has been formed as it shortens the amount of "tube" you have to work with. Simply overlocking these seams would be a viable alternative if the extra strength is not required.

[pygmalion]

Since I finally turned out a dress shirt that could be mistaken for purchased

Woohoo! Congrats. :banana: :cheers:

[DaviesLocker]

I have one Latin shirt that fits very well, and I like the cut of it very much. I was thinking of trying to reproduce the cut as a starting point. There aren't any custom latin costume makers around here, and besides I wanted to be able to learn how to make my own stuff. Anyone have ideas of where to start? How to trace the cut of the shirt? I'm just looking to experiment by first making a simple solid color shirt of that cut with 'cheap test/scrap fabric'.

I'm curious about the kind of fabric and thread that would be appropriate for a latin shirt. I was thinking for my first officially self made one, satin fabric would be nice. I can visualize how to make the top, but have no idea how to approach making the sewn in briefs. Of course I'd be borrowing a friend's sewing machine for this.

[fascination]

I have one Latin shirt that fits very well, and I like the cut of it very much. I was thinking of trying to reproduce the cut as a starting point. There aren't any custom latin costume makers around here, and besides I wanted to be able to learn how to make my own stuff. Anyone have ideas of where to start? How to trace the cut of the shirt? I'm just looking to experiment by first making a simple solid color shirt of that cut with 'cheap test/scrap fabric'.

I'm curious about the kind of fabric and thread that would be appropriate for a latin shirt. I was thinking for my first officially self made one, satin fabric would be nice. I can visualize how to make the top, but have no idea how to approach making the sewn in briefs. Of course I'd be borrowing a friend's sewing machine for this.
I may be able to get you some advice on this in a few weeks...my former pro's mother is still my seamstress and is currently doing some work for me(due the 1st week of nov) and he has had her make him some latin shirts...she is quite good and I imagine I could solicit her advice...and his homemade ones are far sturdier and just as nice looking

[hamstersphere]

If you had a worn-out Latin shirt you liked, the simple answer would be to cut it (very carefully) apart and trace the pieces onto oaktag/posterboard/whatever. If you can't sacrifice a shirt, try getting a piece of foamcore and a bunch of pins; then, pin down (thumbtack-style) each piece along the seam lines. When you take the pins out, the shape made by their holes should dot-to-dot into a serviceable pattern piece. (There's actually an excellent shirtmaking technique book out there by David Page Coffin; that's where this method came from.)

For the briefs, you might as well just cut a pair you like apart and trace the pieces. The tricky part will probably be getting the join at the waist to sit where you want.

In all cases, remember to give yourself a seam allowance! :)

[etp777]

As to fabric, pretty sure we get latin shirt fabric ffrom same place as a lot of the dress fabric, spandex house (in NY if memory serves). They know the business, and are good to deal with. just got a new some new samples in a few weeks ago.