Negroni 2: A Pattern Hack

Last month I made Tim a muslin Colette Patterns Negroni Shirt for his birthday with the promise of making more in the future. He wears his shirt to work regularly but had a few suggestions for improvements. Tim requested: slimmer cut sleeves; a traditional button band and placket rather than shirt front facings; a stiffer collar with a collar stand.

I could have tried a different pattern, but they often lacked other must haves (e.g. back yoke, contrasting cuff placket, slim fit). So, in attempts to get the best of all worlds I spliced together the Negroni Pattern with my beloved Archer shirt pattern (made here and here). On comparing the sizing of the Tim's store bought shirts with my Archers I found that the width of the collar and collar stand was pretty much the same, but the length of the collar/stand/neckline would need to be increased. Same goes for the button plackets. 

Note: Peter has done some tutorials on adapting the Negroni pattern for a traditional placket and collar, but of course I didn't realise until after making the shirt.
So, here what I did:
- Photo copied Archer collar and stand patterns. Added about 1/2" to each piece at the fold/centre line. Thus providing 1" more neck room.
- The Archer pattern has 1/2" seams allowances, Negroni has 5/8". Before attaching the collar stand I trimmed down the Negroni neckline by 1/8".
- I interfaced both sides of the collar and collar stand for a stiffer collar. Although I really need to buy some shirt crisp interfacing.
- I compared the Negroni shirt front to the archer shirt front. If you line up the button placement line on either pattern it's easy to see where you should add width for the right side (where the button placket is folded over) and remove width for the left side ( where you attach the button placket). It's important to consider: 1) women's shirts button up the opposite way to men's; 2) remember to use 1/2" seams allowances or add 1/8"to the right side of the shirt and the contrasting button placket; 3) add length to the button placket pieces as the shirt is much longer than the archer pattern.
- Trimmed down sleeves by 1/2". I cut and overlapped the pattern by 1/4" in two places on each sleeve. I also decreased the width of the cuffs pleat to allow for this.

The changes worked out even better than I expected (it was a gamble cutting straight into the 'good' fabirc). I particularly prefer the crispness of the button placket on this version compared to the Negroni pattern. Next time I will take more width out of the sleeves as they are still baggy. Luckily this is a casual shirt, so Tim will wear it most often with the sleeves rolled up anyway. I'd also shorten the shirt slightly. Unfortunately I didn't notice on the first version as it's always tucked into work pants.

I made Tim's shirt out of two gorgeous linens from Tessuti. The check is Heart On Sleeve and the solid is Indigo flip (I think). The fabric was amazing to sew with and I was pleased with my pattern matching efforts on the side seams and centre front. Sadly, I only have a small amount of the check left so I wont be able to make a matching top for myself.