1860's Shirt Placket tutorial
1860's Men's shirt placket Tutorial
Men's shirts, it seems so easy. Cut a bunch of rectangles, put in a neckhole, sew a few seams and voila, there's a shirt.
Well.....
Not exactly.
While men's shirts from the era were considered an easier item to make, our modern brain that have been trained to sew using cut out patterns and step by step instructions, those simple geometric shapes can very quickly become very, very complicated. So in the sake of education and not ending a sewing day in tears, lets break down one of the hardest parts of the shirt.... the dreaded placket. This is the overlapping front neckline opening that closes with buttons.
To compare it to modern terms, most dress shirts and flannel button ups will have a full length placket, a strip of doubled over fabric that is added on either side the front. The one on the basic standard issue shirt is much the same, but it ends about eight inches down from the top.
You should start with three pieces, one rectangle 4" by 8", one rectangle 4" by 12", and the main shirt body.
To start with, turn the shirt inside out and find the center of the neckline. Cut a chuck out six inches down and 1/2 inch wide. on the left side pin the 8' square so that one side lines up with slit. On the opposite side of the square, iron or pin down 1/2 inch that will be sewn down.
On the right side add the other rectnagle 12" long. Repeat the matching up of the sides, and folding the 1/2 over and pinning/ ironing. the raw seams of this 1/2 fold should be facing up.
Sew the plackets on the side matched with the slit, but only to the bottom of the slit. Fold the rectangles in half towards the center
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Should look like the picture below. clip the edges to the seam line that you placed next to the slit. This is from the slit to the seam but not more. Do this on both sides.
So this is what we should be looking like. as of right now.
Turn the shirt right side out and pull the longer placket to the front. Leave the shorter placket side on the inside. Sandwich the shirt fabric between the folded placket. Do this to both the right and left placket. If you clipped the corners right on the slit, everything should be smooth with no weird wrinkles or bunches.
Top stich both sides to seal the "sandwich" and enclose the raw seams on the slit, Make sure not to catch the other side accidentally when sewing. Best to make sure thread matches the fabric well for the topstiching.
On the shorter placket that is on the inside, fold the bottom edge over and pin. I like to sew the bottom of it before sewing the top, but the right way and more used method is to sew it at the same time as the top. Place a seam to sew both the two placket pieces together horizontally about one inch above the bottom of the slit so it is now sealed in between these layers. Top stitch around the placket outside on the front and back. I like to fold my bottom corners to make a nice little point, but you can leave it square. I think it just gives a little extra zazz to it, and make my man look that much better. Hopefully this helps.
For patterns and more complete tutorials check out these blogs!
Here's a nice pattern
This one shows how to place the placket but she does it a little bit differently and does an amazing job handsewing it
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