Point Collar & Work In Progress

It's been a while since my last post, but I have been working on my Hawaiian shirt during the week. I've decided it really is a mock up because the bargain white poly/cotton I bought is very thin and weak particularly at edges. It's good enough for checking the pattern fit.

I've forgotten many aspects of getting the flat felled seams right. I need to adjust the pattern paper to use the armscye seam method described in David Coffin's book. The pattern calls for seam allowances of 5/8" on both the shirt body and the sleeve. Coffin's method calls for 7/8" seam allowance on the sleeve and 3/8" on the body. I thought it wouldn't matter, but had a big surprise when the underside seams didn't meet. I trimmed the excess fabric, but when I tried to do a flat felled side seam for the length of the shirt, over the armscye seam, and out along the sleeve, the seam rolled at the armpit.

I tried a new method for making point collars. You may have noticed the strange 'check mark mirror' piece in an earlier post. I should have taken step-by-step pictures of how it goes together, but the final result was pretty good for a first attempt.

The method calls for making an edge stitch and turning at the point without making a little ball of thread when the presser foot has no fabric after the direction of stitch changes at the point. Again, I should have taken pictures to show how to fold the opposite end of the collar over and place it under the presser foot to even out the pressure.