Negroni: Tissue Fit I

Well, I thought making a men's shirt was going to be easier then sewing for myself. No boobies to dart around, no girlish curves to contend with, and less restrictions on close-fitting to personal shape. However, the tissue fit of Sam's Negroni is not promising a lot of easiness in this task. There is something wrong in the shoulder, armscye, and neck. In positive news, the length looks good, as does the waist width. (Also, I think I have the over-fitting disease, so I might just be too critical. Please tell me if you think I am taking this too far.)

I have Sam in the straight XL size, as he fit the pattern measurements most closely in this size. Sam's got a pretty standard male figure, tall, relatively broad, and without too much slope in his shoulders (he's a cutie, right?!). He also likes a pretty fitted look in his shirts, keeping with the youthful trends of today. So I want to make sure this shirt hugs his figure pretty good.

What do you think? Are they major adjustments to be made in tissue before I proceed with the fabric muslin? Give me your thoughts?

The back:

It looks pretty good in terms of width across the upper back I think. However, the shoulder is sure hanging far off of his natural shoulder. If you zoom into the pictures you can see that the size small line is actually following the natural pivot line of his shoulder. This makes me thing I should pull in this stitching line closer to the medium, so he gets that fitted look he likes. Of course, I need to keep the XL sizing in his mid and lower back, and through the armpit. Looks like I might be reshaping the yoke shoulder seam and tapering back to the pattern lines like Peter did here.

The front:

The front is of more concern to me than the back. The neckline seems really, really high. In Sam's ready to wear he frequently gets a buckle, or a significant fold of fabric, around his neckline where the shirt seems to cave in on itself around it neck, with wrinkles that smile up from high chest to mid-shoulder (very much along the line of his wife beater neckline there). Could this be similar to the gaping that appears in a lapel line after a full bust adjustment (see Patty's excellent description of this fit issue and alteration here)? If yes, it's just a matter of pinching out a wedge of excess around that second button and truing the center line back up. Or maybe there's another option...?

The side seem looks good.

Negroni: Where I make promises that are hard to keep.

Sam's 30th birthday was in April, and I wanted to give him a special gift. So I thought, what better than to MAKE him something special... A shirt perhaps? And I knew just the pattern, Colette's Negroni. It's a great men's shirt pattern, described as modern with a retro vibe, and since it's a Colette pattern it has wonderful instructions and thoughtful design. Plus, the pattern has been all the rage in the sewing blog-o-sphere these days, so there are sew along and pattern reviews galore to help me through the project.

I bought the pattern and picked out some really nice fabric from Sew Mama Sew - it's Carolina 1" Gingham by Robert Kaufman in blue. It will be just right for Sam, since he's got blue eyes and enjoys the hipster vibe so vogue these days. (The only other piece of clothing I made Sam in my early days of sewing was decidedly NOT his style, plus I got teh print upside down).


We will make some tiny design changes to keep things in Sam's style. He wants a stand collar rather than a camp collar as the pattern in drafted, and I should be able to accommodate that. We are also playing with the idea of a contrast fabric for the facings. Even with little changes, I am feeling pretty in-tune with fashions of the time though, because not but a few weeks after I promised to make the shirt and gave Sam the fabric and pattern, he came across this shirt in the window of Brooks Brothers. Is that a 1" blue gingham with double pockets and a retro vibe? Damn straight it is! I just hope I don't regret offering to make the shirt when I could have bought an exact identical.

So, I am months behind making this a timely birthday gift, but I am starting now and have high hopes for the final results. Something homemade with love will always be more sentimental than store bought, and if I can manage to keep everything relatively un-wonky, it might just be a useful addition to his closet too.

Prague.

They final city our our most recent European tour was Prague, a city much hyped and vastly popular with European travelers theses days. It's popular for a few reasons, one being its stunning old world beauty. Prague was not bombed in WWII, one of the only great European cities to escape being leveled in rubble, so it's street grid, buildings, and history is all originally preserved. Second, Prague sat behind the Iron Curtain of the Soviets for a long time, so it was largely undiscovered except for the last 20 years. Apparently that makes it feel more like an "authentic" European destination in our ever-globalizing world. (I for one think the city seems to have been "found" as it was so crowded with throngs of tourists.) The last thing that makes Prague a delight is that it is low on sights and high on ambiance, so it basically begs for strolls, and lingering lattes at cafes and a general sense of meandering.

After Berlin we shifted gears and took a train to the city of Prague in the Czech Republic with Will and Carmen, while John and Lauren made their way to Italy. Prague was in stark contrast to Berlin, as it is one of the only cities to escape any bombing in WWII. Thus the city retains the charm of an old European city with winding medieval roads, loads of ornate and varied architecture from different eras of fashion, plus intact cathedrals and a castle, all flanked by a lovely rive - the Vltava.

Many people describe Prague as magical. I have heard it called a Fairy Tale city and a like-a-postcard. And by many accounts they are right. Prague is lovely. Also, it is crowded. So, so crowded. We were surrounded most times with other French, British, Spanish, and American tourists. Prague seemed eager to handle the tourist flood. In fact, thanks to the throng of tourists, Prague almost felt a bit confused in its identity. On one hand, the visuals of the city are so refined and elegant and stately. On the other hand, the tourist industry in Prague is almost shameless in their blatant effort to sell the city - with kiosks blasting rock music and Abba and postcard shops on every corner. I know it's not my place to judge an entire city and culture, but I will say that it gave me a sense of sadness for the Czechs, as it seems like their modern culture never was given a chance to form a proper and lasting identity - they went from crushing Soviet tyranny to tourist capitalism so quickly that they have not necessarily defined any of their native culture as sacred yet.

I will say that one thing that makes Prague a delight is that it is low on sights and high on ambiance, so it basically begs for strolls, and lingering lattes at cafes and a general sense of meandering. We obliged gratefully as we escaped the crowds.

Above Prague sits one of the larges castles in Europe. It has been there in various states of construction since the 13th century and still functions as the seat of Czech government. Above the castle is a monastery, and the walk from the monastery to castle offers sweeping and stunning views of the charming city below. The monastery is also where an old Czech lady tried to rip Sam out of 300 crowns by giving him the wrong change. Turns out, the guidebooks are a bit right about Prague being full of swindlers!

We took the tram system up the big hill to the castle in a tram almost entirely to ourselves. That was nice, because my favorite Rick Steves suggested this tram line is ripe with pickpockets. Since we were green tourists, we were highly nervous of the pickpockets (some of us more than others, Will was cool and trusting).

We saw two Taiwanese brides getting wedding portraits taken under the astronomical clock. It was just too funny to see one in the picture and the other with a camcorder, all in the great old square FULL of tourists, looking totally out of place.




On our last day Sam and I took a paddle boat out on the Vlatava for a relaxing hour long float. The river is really calm, so it was easy to navigate under bridges full of pedestrians with views of the Castle and the Charles Bridge. As we pedaled under one bridge that led out to a river island, we saw a woman squatting under the bridge, surrounded by ducks. "Fun," we thought, she must be feeding ducks. Then we got closer and saw her trousers were slipping down around her ankles. "Oh my," we thought "maybe she is peeing." Then, as we paddled within about 15 yards of her, we saw her belt unwrapped from her arm and we realized "Holy sh*t, she was shooting up." It was quite a contrast to our tourist bliss. But don't let drug addicts scare you away from the joys of paddling the river. Otherwise, it was very lovely and relaxing.

The Jewish Quarter in Prague is amazing because it holds history from centuries and centuries of European Jews. The circumstances that created this cultural richness are tragic and unfair, as the Jews of Prague had been quarantined to this small area of the city since the 1500s through the Nazi expulsion in the Holocaust. Through the 400 years of their time in this quarter, there was only one cemetery to bury their dead, so the graves stacked upon each other over the years. With time the headstones shifted, leaving a crowded, chaotic, yet peaceful cemetery representing a long history of a people. We toured the cemetery along with several synagogues and museums that shared the history and heritage of the Jewish faith and people. Additionally, the Jewish Quarter of Prague is one of the most beautifully preserved Art Nouveau neighborhoods in all of Europe.

We rented an beautiful apartment with Will and Carmen that came with two showers, two queen sized beds, a fully stocked kitchen, How I Met Your Mother dubbed in Czech on TV, a bidet, and this tiny elevator that was supposed to comfortable carry three. In reality, it barely carried Sam and one suitcase.

Prague castle is one of the biggest in all of Europe, and included a lovely cathedral built in several phases in different centuries and featuring lovely stain glass, plus a giant hall where nobles used to conduct horse jousting in bad weather. We hiked a long hill down to the castle where we tried to take nice photos, but the sun was so bright (finally) I could barely open my eyes.

Berlin, part III.

I don't think many people think about Germany as once being the European super power, but its true. Hence the Brandenburg Gate, built by the Prussian monarchs in the late 18th century. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered. It is apparently one of Europe's most famous landmarks, although I am pretty sure the six of us had little idea of that going into our trip. Call us undereducated Americans, but none of us really know our Germany history prior to WWII. At least I know more of it know that I have visited and read all about it. Whats amazing is that this famous gate was stuck between East and West Germany divided by walls for almost 30 years.

The guy on my left (your right) was the saddest, most depressing looking statue actor ever. He was so good I gave them a coin, and then they forced me to sit in this chair for photos. I had no idea! They asked me where I was from and when I said Texas, the other statue guy just kept saying "Texas Ranger, Texas Ranger" and giving me the thumbs up. I was totally flustered.

Did I mention it rained for much of our trip to Berlin. Yes, indeed, it rained quite a bit. First it rained in Munich, then it rained for days on end in Berlin. It cleared up eventually, but we were quite damp for much of the trip. Sam even started a very artistic photo series of broken umbrellas littered across the streets of Berlin. As he put it "So many good umbrellas were claimed before their time." But we slogged through the bad weather (for the most part) to explore the Berlin Wall, the palaces at Potsdam, and of course the Berlin staple currywurst.

It was the residence of the Prussian kings (German emperors), until 1918. The parks and palaces include the featured Sanssouci Palace, which means "without a care." Believe it or not, the Sanssouci is actually a relatively modest palace. There are many other palace in the Potsdam park. Apparently is was super vogue for all the Prussian royalty to build themselves summer homes in this area. One of the more recent palaces is also the site of the Postdam Conference - the major post-WWII conference between the victorious Allies including Churchill, Stalin, and Truman. Sam stood right by Stalin's desk and we took a photo at the table where they negotiated the division of Berlin.

Currywurst is the iconic food of Berlin. It is basically a fancy hot dog in a curry ketchup, served with a soft roll or french fries, and delicious in its greasy goodness. It hardly feels refined, and it is most certainly not healthy, but they do serve it with tiny cocktail forks which you use to pick up slices of wurst and french fries. We ate it more than once, and it was good each time.

We spent a lot of time learning the history of the Berlin Wall, and this open air park and museum was the best site. The Documentation Center at Bernauer Strasse is actually situation on a space where the Communists leveled a church and relocated a cemetery in order to construct the wall. It preserves a section of the two walls as they were before it was torn down, with the "Death Zone" where anyone crossing was shot and a guard tower. We saw images and learned that they days after the wall first went up, the communists actually boarded up apartment building doors and windows of buildings that were on the boarder of the wall so that people could not jump from their windows into the West. In fact, before the wall there was just waist-high barbed wire, and there is a story and a photo of a man handing his child over the wall to the boy's mother in the East. Apparently the Dad had the boy for the day and the wire wall went up, with the mother at home in the East. The couple was separated and could not reunite thanks to the barrier and the guards enforcing the boarder, but they let the Dad hand the child to his mother so she could raise him. It sounds awful. In fact Communist soldiers were even known to make a break for freedom in the West by jumping the wall sometimes.

Berlin, part II.

In Berlin, we visited a bunch of museums. Classical art museums, modern art museums, antiquities museums, German History museums, a natural science museum, and even a museum on The Wall barely worthy of the title museum.



Museum für Gegenwart - or the modern art museum - is in the old Hamburger Bahnhof train station, much like the Musee D'Orsay in Paris, only more modern. We saw a bunch of Warhols and some other famous art, plus some crazy cool art made out of stone and mud. I enjoy looking at modern art, even if I don't find it aesthetically pleasing or don't totally "get" it. But this museum had a healthy dose of lovely art that I could understand, as well as some truly crazy sh*t that can barely qualify as art. Definitely worth the visit.


We stopped for afternoon dessert and lattes before Museum Island one afternoon. We each choose our treats from the longest dessert bar in Europe (so my guidebook claimed). I had a blaubeere tart, there was a busker on the corner of the cafe playing classical music, and after we got up hoards of tiny birds attacked our leftovers.


Because it was raining, and because we had a museum pass that let us into all state-run museums for free, we went into the Natural History Museum. It was an old-school place, with dioramas, some big dinosaur skeletons, and a room floor to ceiling with old sea creatures saved in formaldehyde. It was like a twisted scientist's lab, totally memorizing, and nice because it was one of the few air conditioned places in the city.