Self Directed Project : National Theatre Hire Departmet

Now I will move onto the Shirt This is made out of a white cotton from the National Theatre. I am going to have to change the pattern as the pattern is a 44 chest and I am making a 42 chest so I will have to down size the pattern. this will be quite challenging as well as the pleats at the front of the shirt will also be quite time consuming so I will be completing these two things first. Again I can use the purple pen to mark as it comes of the shirt material without leaving any marks so this should help me save some time.

here are pictures of the shirt I will be duplicating:

i took this picture so i could see where the shoulder piece is contected and where the top of the sleeve sits.

this picture shows the pleats and the collar.

It is important to know how the pleats sit on the shirt. and also how the front of the shirt opens as there are two pleat patterns, two CF front pieces to be attaches a collar shoulder pieces and a bottom piece on the inside and out of the shirt so this is the most complex part of the shirt.

the bottom of the shirt is pleated so will need to have two running stitches on the seam allowance to be pulled to create this effect.

the same will need to be applied to the top of the sleeve before it is attached to the shoulder

the whole of the bottom of the sleeves will need two running stitches also before the cuff is attached

The seam of the shirt sleeve attaches to the side seam so it runs straight down.

The bottom of the shirt has an opening at both sides.


The first thing I found difficult was the sizes of the pattern pieces, however this was not as hard as the front of the shirt as there are so many different parts to put together some on top of each other some with pleats going in-between two pieces of material. It was like a really confusing jigsaw puzzle it took me two days in total and I couldn't believe this and as I left the shirt until the end of the project (thinking it would be the easiest and quickest to complete) I ended up throwing myself completely of schedule. Also the shirt had a lot of fabric which needed to be gathered in the front (middle section) of the shirt the top and bottom of the sleeves and the back of the collar. It is very difficult to control a massive amount of material through a sewing machine. Marks on this fabric have been a nightmare as well as I came to material there were foot prints on it and as I worked with the material I kept finding marks which I thought I had got rid of this frustrated me a little.
With the shirt being nearly complete now I really like the look of it but it has been a task and a half and I have struggled with every stage I just hope it will be up to scratch for the National!