McCalls Men's Shirts M6044

Shirt for my dude! I let him shop my fabric stash, and although he normally sticks to cool tones and grays, he went for this rad tiger print I got off Spoonflower in a custom colorway. I spent a long time on pattern matching to get the front as lined up as possible. (5 pieces: 2 fronts, 2 button plackets, 1 pocket). Plus, I was able to get cool tiger cuts on the sleeves, although I cut the sleeves backwards, so the tigers are facing towards the back instead of the front. Oh well, the front has a lot going on for it already with all the pattern matching!!

After putting together the shirt, I realized the shoulders were hanging too wide on him (he has a tall slender frame), but he said he didn't want me to have to redo any of it. So the pattern pieces will get a narrow shoulder adjustment for the next iterations. I find the narrow shoulder adjustment is needed on every modern Big4 pattern I've ever made! Even though I've never thought of myself as narrow shouldered ?

I docked a star for the wide shoulders thing and from some over-complication in some places in the instructions, while under-explaining some other areas. It's all google-able, thankfully.

McCalls 6044 is a fairly traditional, relaxed fit shirt, with a curved hem, a two-part collar and collar stand, and optional chest pockets. There are also two different sleeve variations and one option has a front and back yoke, giving it a slightly more Western styling. I would consider this a good pattern for an intermediate sewist -- this was my first time making a shirt for a man, but I found it fairly straightforward. I would recommend taking your time with the collar and buttonholes, as they can be sometimes quite daunting! This pattern also involves slipstitching the inner collar stand piece in place and the two front collar bands, so keep that in mind if hand-sewing isn't your favourite activity... ;)

I made View A (short sleeves and one chest pocket) in a Medium from this fun Cotton + Steel quilting cotton; shade of sky blue is so lovely and I think the sneaker print is very fitting for the recipient of my selfless sewing! The cotton was super easy to sew and I really love the finished look – you can see more photos and details on my blog.

I didn't make any modifications to this pattern, bar adding a few centimeters here and there to ensure a good fit. The back piece is cut on the fold and there isn’t much shaping in the front pattern pieces either, so that may be something to modify in the future to make the final cut more slim-fit. I would highly recommend this pattern and am thrilled with my first foray into menswear!

I made a scissors shirt for my husband using McCalls 6044. The fit on the arms isn't perfect for him but the overall look is very cool.

More images and a full review on my blog.

https://emmasatelierblog.com/2019/09/01/the-longest-ufo-mccalls-6044/

My husband spotted the fabric in the opening credits of Sewing Bee and said he'd love a shirt made up in it - and how could I turn that offer down!

This the third version of this pattern but the first time sewing View A

View A is really quick to come together. This is a size medium and it fits perfectly straight out of the packet.

I made life easier for myself by following Foursquarewall's blog post about attaching the collar in a different order, and it made life so much easier.

This is definitely a TNT pattern in this house. A great one for venturing into shirt making.

I've made this shirt several times for my hubby (I think I'm up to seven so far!) and it's relatively straight-forward. The first time I made it, when I was a fairly new sewist, I felt the instructions seemed rather complicated, but by going step-by-step, taking my time, reading and re-reading, everything seemed to fall into place and made sense. Now I can rustle one up (except the buttons and button holes) over a long day. I make it in the small size for him, but have also added a couple of slim darts on the back of the pattern and I make the sleeves a bit narrower to give him a better fit. I really like the neatness of the front band; it gives it a professional finish. The collar and collar stand aren't too complicated once you get your head around it, and I really like the pleat and slit detail on the cuffs of the long-sleeve version. The latest two (the blue long sleeve and green short sleeve) I've made using French Seams to give the insides a cleaner finish. He's a happy chappy, as he can now pick out the exact fabric he wants, then hand it over to me and it comes back as a shirt!