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Shirtmaking: Developing Skills for Fine Sewing
Here is the definitive resource on the fine art of making shirts. Author David Page Coffin shows how to create elegant, custom-fit garments for a woman or a man that have a great tailored look and fit perfectly. And, even more important, once you learn to make and fit a shirt -- whether you have sewn for weeks or years -- your sewing skills will be dramatically improved.
David shares the construction secrets of garments from the world's finest shirtmakers. Discover how to duplicate and even improve on these garments, using simple tools and techniques any sewer can acquire. Includes 15 pages of full-sized patterns for collars, plackets, cuffs, and pockets.
In the companion video, Shirtmaking Techniques , Coffin demonstrates the techniques that are the hallmarks of fine shirtmaking and shows how to master rolled hems, flat-felled seams, collars, cuffs, and plackets.
"This book is great -- fresh, focused information on shirtmaking. David Coffin's approach is straightforward and logical...no sooner do you pose a question than he answers it."
-- Sandra Betzina, syndicated sewing columnist, author of Power Sewing and More Power Sewing, and host of HGTV's Sew Perfect
David shares the construction secrets of garments from the world's finest shirtmakers. Discover how to duplicate and even improve on these garments, using simple tools and techniques any sewer can acquire. Includes 15 pages of full-sized patterns for collars, plackets, cuffs, and pockets.
In the companion video, Shirtmaking Techniques , Coffin demonstrates the techniques that are the hallmarks of fine shirtmaking and shows how to master rolled hems, flat-felled seams, collars, cuffs, and plackets.
"This book is great -- fresh, focused information on shirtmaking. David Coffin's approach is straightforward and logical...no sooner do you pose a question than he answers it."
-- Sandra Betzina, syndicated sewing columnist, author of Power Sewing and More Power Sewing, and host of HGTV's Sew Perfect
192 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1993
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551 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 8, 2010
A fantastic little primer on (mostly) mens shirts. The author guides you through getting started, fitting a pattern, construction and sewing in an orderly and logical way. As I read through, all the questions that arose in my mind were answered within the next few pages so my reaction throughout the book went something like: "Yeah but then how...." (flip, flip) "Oh! Got it." I like that in a sewing book.
My only nit to pick was his pushing of specialty feet for machines. Those bad boys are not cheap and I don't appreciate being told that I won't be able to achieve good results without them. Especially if it's not true.
But, onwards to sewing!
My only nit to pick was his pushing of specialty feet for machines. Those bad boys are not cheap and I don't appreciate being told that I won't be able to achieve good results without them. Especially if it's not true.
But, onwards to sewing!
February 21, 2020
Highly recommend this for anyone who wants to elevate their shirtmaking game. Book contains some great tips and tricks. Included are some templates for different collar and collar band shapes. I prefer the placket template David has provided over the ones included in Big 4 patterns. I just ordered his newest book (Sewing Shirts with a Perfect Fit) and am excited to read it!
April 16, 2023
David Page Coffin was a home sewing, mostly self-taught legend. I read this book almost like a novel, it's that interesting (could just be me?). It makes me want to sew nothing but finely made shirts. Not a bad idea as these are the items that make the most impact to appearance and wear out the fastest.
Multiple methods are discussed (with personal anecdotes and decided opinions) for all aspects of shirt-making from the quick, industry methods to fine custom tailoring. And then there are the quirky bits like using a pair of socks for knit cuffs on a sportsman's pullover. Full of ideas, adaptations, examples and modifications; a whole shirt sewing education in a book.
Introduction - Why he wrote a specific shirtmaking book and why you should make your own shirts.
SHIRTS EXAMINED
One: The Materials of Fine Shirts - shirting fabrics, preparing shirting fabrics
Two: The Shirtmaker's Tools - for shirtmaking, for pattern preparation and sewing practice, desirable but optional tools
Three: The Classic Shirt - anatomy of a classic shirt, one piece back, one or two-piece double yoke, shirt front, flat felled armscye and side seams, one-piece sleeves with plackets, barrel and French cuffs, collar on a stand, rolled hem, sundry details
PATTERNMAKING
Four: Making Shirts Fit - the well fitted shirt, collar fit, shoulder fit, sleeve fit, body fit, achieving good fit, developing a shirt pattern that fits, adjusting a commercial pattern, drafting your own pattern, copying existing shirts, combined pattern-making method
Five: Developing A Basic Pattern- the drape method, draping a woman's shirt pattern, sleeves
Six: Collars, Plackets, Cuffs and Pockets - with a catalogue of pattern details at full scale
SHIRT CONSTRUCTION
Seven: A Workshop in Precision Sewing Techniques - stay stitching and sewing seams, construction ironing, trimming seam allowances, edge-stitching and top-stitching, flat-felled seams and rolled hems, sewing the sleeve/body seam, attaching cuffs and collar bands, placket construction, turning collar points, making the collar
Eight: Sewing It All Together - working with striped fabrics, pattern layout, putting the shirt together
Nine: Variations on a Classic Theme - a closer look at the rectangular shirt, the bib shirt and shirt-waist, the shirt in the early 20th century, the modern shirt, the outdoor, utility and over-shirt, the modern non-dress shirt, a catalogue of design ideas
Addendum: Monogramming Shirts
Sources of Supply / Bibliography / Index
Multiple methods are discussed (with personal anecdotes and decided opinions) for all aspects of shirt-making from the quick, industry methods to fine custom tailoring. And then there are the quirky bits like using a pair of socks for knit cuffs on a sportsman's pullover. Full of ideas, adaptations, examples and modifications; a whole shirt sewing education in a book.
Introduction - Why he wrote a specific shirtmaking book and why you should make your own shirts.
SHIRTS EXAMINED
One: The Materials of Fine Shirts - shirting fabrics, preparing shirting fabrics
Two: The Shirtmaker's Tools - for shirtmaking, for pattern preparation and sewing practice, desirable but optional tools
Three: The Classic Shirt - anatomy of a classic shirt, one piece back, one or two-piece double yoke, shirt front, flat felled armscye and side seams, one-piece sleeves with plackets, barrel and French cuffs, collar on a stand, rolled hem, sundry details
PATTERNMAKING
Four: Making Shirts Fit - the well fitted shirt, collar fit, shoulder fit, sleeve fit, body fit, achieving good fit, developing a shirt pattern that fits, adjusting a commercial pattern, drafting your own pattern, copying existing shirts, combined pattern-making method
Five: Developing A Basic Pattern- the drape method, draping a woman's shirt pattern, sleeves
Six: Collars, Plackets, Cuffs and Pockets - with a catalogue of pattern details at full scale
SHIRT CONSTRUCTION
Seven: A Workshop in Precision Sewing Techniques - stay stitching and sewing seams, construction ironing, trimming seam allowances, edge-stitching and top-stitching, flat-felled seams and rolled hems, sewing the sleeve/body seam, attaching cuffs and collar bands, placket construction, turning collar points, making the collar
Eight: Sewing It All Together - working with striped fabrics, pattern layout, putting the shirt together
Nine: Variations on a Classic Theme - a closer look at the rectangular shirt, the bib shirt and shirt-waist, the shirt in the early 20th century, the modern shirt, the outdoor, utility and over-shirt, the modern non-dress shirt, a catalogue of design ideas
Addendum: Monogramming Shirts
Sources of Supply / Bibliography / Index
April 26, 2023
An excellent book on the subject, probably too advanced for me but that's not the book's fault. I'm more a "Shirtmaking: coming up with something wearable that's not too difficult" kind of guy.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
September 11, 2020
Certainly the best treatment of classic shirt making I’ve ever read, and I read a lot about sewing. It helps to have experience, because the instructions are more condensed than today’s sprawling tutorials. I’m giving this five stars because it has techniques you simply won’t read about anywhere else and I’ve gotten gorgeous results with them, but I really think a book of this quality deserves an updated edition with more space devoted to instructions, diagrams, and (ahem) paragraph breaks.
September 19, 2020
Wow, I just finished my first read through of this short but dense treatise of sartorial knowledge, and I know this is but just the 1st of many read throughs.
If you are a home sewist interested in making the transition from home sewing to developing pro level skills, this book will help you get started.
By no means is it "complete" in its discussions of advanced techniques, but it is more than enough to get you started with a taste of what serious sewing and garment construction is about.
If you are a home sewist interested in making the transition from home sewing to developing pro level skills, this book will help you get started.
By no means is it "complete" in its discussions of advanced techniques, but it is more than enough to get you started with a taste of what serious sewing and garment construction is about.
September 27, 2021
Information to take my sewing to a new level.
Very clearly written and easy for a novice like me to understand. My shirts now are levels above what I was sewing before. I’m over 70 years old and have only been sewing for a few years but now I feel very confident in my shirt construction.
Very clearly written and easy for a novice like me to understand. My shirts now are levels above what I was sewing before. I’m over 70 years old and have only been sewing for a few years but now I feel very confident in my shirt construction.
October 25, 2023
I figured a THREADS book wouldn't disappoint, and I was right, as even an experienced sewist like me learned much from this book. The author seems to have something against commercial patterns, but explains his reasoning well. Book has detailed drawings for each step in shirt making.
January 11, 2021
A great book full of clever techniques in shirtmaking & interesting ideas for future projects. Lots of detailed drawings & explanations also.
February 24, 2025
Excellent resource although I think he changed the order in which he sewed collar stays > collar later in life. Either way it's worth a look if you're making shirts.
September 18, 2012
Simple, straightforward and easy to follow instructions to set my sewing apart from just "average". Best of all, the book is written with men's shirts in mind; so often an afterthought in most publications. Also, the author's confession that making one's own shirts is not an exercise in efficiency nor frugality - rather it's the ability to make something FIT hit home. I suspect he also brews his own beer.
I'm looking forward to putting the techniques to the test and, hopefully, never buying another RTW shirt.
I'm looking forward to putting the techniques to the test and, hopefully, never buying another RTW shirt.
August 14, 2012
Lots of techniques and instructions to take basic shirt making to a much higher level. Coffin goes far beyound the pattern companies to show the user how to adapt to differences in body and posture to create 'expensive' shirts most anyone would be proud to wear.
October 27, 2008
Also the companion video.
May 29, 2009
wonderful book and great resource. I refer to it often
January 23, 2014
Excellent book! I highly recommend this book to all Shirtmaking Lovers! The author gives an incredible useful technique of making fine shirts for men and woman.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews