Hi everyone, I hope all is well with you. This is one of my most exciting posts to date. Since I have fallen in love with sewing clothes, I have mostly sewn garments for myself and my children. On occasions, I have sewn pajamas for my husband. However, he has been throwing hints at me to sew something more for quite some time, and to be honest, I have been ignoring those hints due to fear.
As many of you whom have followed me for years may know, I am not a menswear sewer. I worried that I would be out of my lane and make many unfixable errors. Especially considering my husband is a big and tall guy. Well, you never know how well you will do until you try right? I did try, and I am proud to say I did well. I not only sewed a top for him, but also great fitting pants. He said it was the perfect gift
Fabric Used
For my husbands top, I used a gray, brown, and cream stripe rib knit from Joann. This 95% polyester and 5% spandex fabric is 57″ in length. It has a four-way stretch, a ribbed texture, and a soft drape. For his pants I used a gray cotton and polyester double knit from Mood Fabrics. This thick medium weight knit fabric is a cotton polyester. It is similar to a Ponte knit. It gave the look of a casual pants while wearing like a knit jogger. The difficulty I found in this fabric is that it was not easy to decipher between the right and wrong side of the fabric. Make sure you look at the selvage to see which side is right or wrong, and then mark it so you will not be confused after cutting your pattern pieces. When sewing with either fabric, a size 70 ballpoint needle is best.
Pattern Used/Size Cut
For this project, I sewed Know Me ME2009 Men’s Knit Button Up Top and Pants by Julian Creates. This pattern has long sleeves with cuff bands and bottom band with button details. The slim knit pants have a fly front with zipper, front pockets, a 1/8″ pintucks in the back and front leg of the pants, drawstring waist, and single welt back pockets. I did not add the drawstring as my husband did not want it on his pants. My husband is not usually one to pick patterns for me to sew for him, but while I was sharing the news of the patterns from my fellow garment sewers being in Joann, he pointed out Julian’s pattern was said, ” I really like this pattern, I want you to make it for me.” Well, I obliged and began on a quest to sew my husband this pants set.
The pattern ranges from size 34-52, My husband is a big and tall guy. For the size, I cut a 52 for the top and added about 3 inches of width to the front. For the pants I cut a 48. Please measure accordingly and use the finished garment sizing on the pattern paper to help guide you on what size to cut.
Modifications Made
The only modification I made to the pattern is to add the 3 inches to the width of the front of the top. Next time I sew it my husband has asked me not to include the pintucks, so in the future I will be modifying leaving out the pintucks in the front and back of the pants.
Review & Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed sewing this set very much. The best part of sewing this set is the joy it brought my husband. Now he can finally stop telling people I don’t make him clothes lol. I have truly learned so much from sewing this sewfit for my love. Here are a few things I learned about sewing for men.
Measure well and measure twice to ensure you have the correct measurement.
Use a muslin first to fit the garment well before cutting into the fabric (this is true no matter who you are sewing for, but with men it’s even more important).
Pay attention to the shoulders, that are can make or break you. Not to worry, if you have to adjust the shoulder, measure out from the armhole end of the shoulder seam to the distance you want to increase the width of the shoulder. square off the corner into a right angle. Next you will redraw the rest of the armhole curve. Finally, transfer any markings from the original patterns piece to the new line.
Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog, I truly appreciate it. I hope that this blog was informative and that you learned something that will help you in your next sewing project. Comment below and let me know your thoughts or questions. Also, please make sure to subscribe to my blog.
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