Shirts
Still waiting on the motor drive belt. This past couple of weeks has been busy in a negative sort of way. Things that should be simple have taken a lot of time. So nothing has gotten done sewing wise despite having several projects I want to do. I want to make a better quality bag for the tape recorders, a english style saddle bag for the bike, and then try my hand at making a dress shirt.
Dress shirts seem to be a place that is worthwhile from a price as well as a fit point of view. A decent man’s dress shirt costs $30-$50 or more . Unless you are an guy who had no problem with off the rack fit, few of us guys are so lucky, you either have to make your own shirts or buy custom shirts if you want proper fit.
As best as I can tell with out actually having done it yet, it looks like there is about an hours labor in making a shirt once you know what you are doing. Of course that means there is four or five hours each involved before getting to that point –going by the old 20/80% rule. So once I am skilled at it, I should be able to make a custom fitted $100 shirt for an hour’s labor and about three yards of decent shirting fabric.
Sewing Scissors
I picked up a pair of Mundial 5 Inch Sewing Scissors from Amazon. They were under $7 (I see they have raised the price to $12) and added to another item I was buying to bring the amount up to the $25 free shipping level came out to about the shipping cost, so they were essentially free. They were listed as the black handled industrial version, but the photo showed an all nickel plated version. Turned out the photo was correct they are the all plated version. They appear to be almost up to the quality you got back in the old days, nothing you buy today has that hand finished final polishing that quality things used to have. I have seen places selling the same scissors for $27, so I am quite satisfied with the purchase. Sewing scissors like these are what you use for notching, marking, and fine trimming, so even if you use a rotory cutter for your main cutting, you still need a pair of these. I now have these, the dressmakers shears, a pair of tailors shears, and a thread snipper. That leaves me needing a pair of embrodery scissors for very fine cutting, and a pair of pinking shears to complete my scissors set.
I am still awaiting a belt for the Singer. Murphy’s Law seems to apply to getting drive belts mail order. First place I ordered it from canceled the order. Second place sent me a belt that was too small, no not the wrong size, but one that seem to be between sizes. Now I am waiting for them to get in a new shipment of belts.