Buttondown Shirts for the Hubby

A few weeks ago I wrote about my hope to make some buttondown shirts for my husband. Well about two weeks, one semi-failed buttondown shirt and 5 yards of fabric later...I have two handsome buttondown shirts! I have a third shirt that is a size too large and needs work to make it right, but I learned a lot from it!

I've made buttondown shirts before, but it had been almost 10 years since I last tried. I was worried I wouldn't remember how to be precise! I used McCall #6044 and three different cotton shirtings I bought from Fabric Mart a few years ago. They have a nice selection of wrinkle-free shirtings.

The first shirt I cut out in size large because that's "what the pattern told me I should do." I knew that when I make clothing for myself I never make my ready-to-wear size, so I was expecting the same thing here. When my husband tried the shirt on, I ended up having to take it in a whole size! So I stopped working on that shirt and cut out the next shirt in size medium.

There were just a few changes I made to the pattern. I cut the collar out in size large, because he has a larger neck circumference. On ready-to-wear shirts, he has to leave the button at the top open (when wearing a tie.) I also had to make the sleeves 1 1/4" shorter and the hem 2" shorter.

The pattern was quite simple as far as details go. I added a yoke to the back of the shirt to help make it more like a ready-to-wear shirt. I also added top-stitching to the shoulder seams, and armhole. I had a hard time finding a thread that matched the background color, so I selected a deep navy thread. It matches some of the pinstriping in the fabric.

I used Pellon Shir-Tailor Fusible Interfacing for the collar and cuffs. I used a lighter weight interfacing on the button yoke because the Shir-Tailor made it too stiff. 

Overall, I really enjoyed making these shirts! They were fairly easy and I whipped up two in one weekend. I don't think we're going to be buying buttondown shirts anymore. I will be shopping for fabric instead!

(I will post a picture of the other two buttondown shirts once we have a better day to do picture taking!)