Shirts and Overshirts - placket placement

[Oldewalnut]

I've obtained a cotton flannel overshirt. The young woman who made it is just learning to sew and this was one of her mistakes. I haven't got a lot invested in it, so figure if I can salvage it, it's a gain. It's got a couple of flaws, one I can easily fix, the other, I'm real curious about.

The first is the patch pockets, they're too low, that's a minor problem, I've already ripped the seams, will pin them up higher and re-sew, one problem solved.

The other is the placket, it looks like it was sewn for a woman's garmet, the buttons are on the left side of the shirt, with the plackets buttonholes on the right! Personally, I can be ignorant, and simply say, "it's a shirt". In the modern age, I'm sure someone will notice. As a working class person, I look at this as a utilatarian garmet. How style conscious were these people? I wouldn't give it a second thought, if I were a practical person of the era.

Any help or advice is appreciated.

[Michael Semann]

Re: Shirts and Overshirts - placket placement

If I were attempting to patch the placket problem (say that rapidly 10 times), I would borrow a small strip off of the bottom of the shirt tails (if there is enough spare material down there, and there should be, even if you have to piece it.), and remove the sewn on placket from the shirt front, reverse the location, and resew the new one. The shirt front unassembled, sans the placket piece, should come apart to look like an inverted T cut into the shirt front. Obviously,the fact that button holes were cut and sewn into the shirt's present placket is what makes it necessary to discard that piece and make a new one from salvaged material. You might need to make a placket for the other side to cover the previous button hole location, depending on the shirt's construction.
By the way, I have NEVER seen a mid 19thC. man's shirt with the button location located on the left side, so I think that this modification is necessary if you are going to use it.
If you need any help, let me know. I have made many period garments in my time, so if this gets to be too difficult a project for you, you can send the shirt to me, and I'll fix it for you for free. Best of luck.

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Shirts and Overshirts - placket placement

I am not sure how much work you want to put into this shirt...but depending on the type of material, if muslin you may want to get a new piece...otherwise you may want to do the placket and some trim pieces on the shirt in a different color/material from what is already there...there are alot of pictures out there and i believe also in EOG showing this.

Paul B. Boulden Jr.

RAH VA MIL '04

[Oldewalnut]

Re: Overshirt - placket placement

Mike & Paul,

Thanks for the replys. Truth is, it actually wasn't as much a project as I first suspected. After reading your reply Mike. I went and looked at a couple of my "better" shirts, this gave me some extra direction based on your comments of replacing the placket. I pretty much just de-constructed it, shifted the placket from the left side of the shirt and pinned the edge and re-sewed it over the top of the right side (does that make sense ).

I then sewed over the buttonholes. All I have to do now is replace the buttons, punch and re-sew the new buttonholes. I have a usable overshirt. Truth being here, for a work shirt, imagine there was more than one that had been put together wrong and then reworked after the mistake was caught. Not like I've ever been involved in a project where, something was not where it needed to be.

The other part of the problem was the pockets. They were too low on the shirt, looked like jacket pockets? I just ripped the seams out, moved them up to the breast and crudely sewed them back on to look like an afterthought.

[Michael Semann]

Re: Shirts and Overshirts - placket placement

Glad to hear that all went well. Sometimes the pre-cut button holes won't line up to their proper location when you reverse the placket, depending on where they were previously placed in the original location (whew that was long winded!), if that makes sence. It's fortunate that you were able to use the original placket. Now make good use of that overshirt, and cheers.