Teaser photo!

A few days ago I posted a teaser swatch for a tutorial/illustration project I'm working on in collaboration with a fabulous sewist & blogger. Above is another piece of the puzzle.

Now how could this photo of my patient husband with tape all over his T-shirt relate to that yellow cotton pique swatch? And no, Masheka will not be wearing anything made from that yellow swatch or any vintage patterns... as I mentioned in my previous post, the only items I'll be sewing for him are shirts and hoodies in standard menswear fabrics...

A Good Men's Shirting Is Hard to Find

Cartoonist Husband, being the creative and artistic type, has always been a big fan of my sewing--how else would he have obtained these custom Two-Face and Reno 911 Halloween costumes?

Considering how smashingly those efforts were received, I've always meant to sew him something he can wear in everyday life. Modern men's sewing patterns are nearly as scarce as maternity patterns but luckily Masheka isn't looking for anything wild--just a nice hoodie or two and some woven sports shirts.

I've owned a copy of David Page Coffin's Shirtmaking: Developing Skills For Fine Sewing since it came out and together Masheka and I selected Kwik Sew 3422 pattern as the most promising starting point for a woven men's shirt:

That was the easy part. Have you ever tried to find good men's shirting fabrics at reasonable prices? I don't feel like Masheka is asking too much--he's looking for something fun, but not too fun, in a striped 100% cotton men's shirting. No blends (he gets easily overheated), no checks or plaids or florals or Western-style fabrics (not his style) and nothing too boring or stuffy (he wears those kind of shirts for work, not for weekend). Which pretty much eliminated every single fabric I found online or in my Garment District wanderings for under $25/yard.

Here's an example of one of Masheka's few favorite weekend shirts, from Brooklyn Industries (depicted here on one of our trips to Merida, Mexico):

And here's a closeup of the fabric for this shirt and another favorite (the stripes are actually blue on the second one):

Getting desperate, I decided to put aside cost for the moment and just try to figure out what exactly he liked. Enter Beckenstein Fashion Fabrics (aka Fabric Czar) on 39th St. This venerable institution makes custom-fitted men's suits and shirts, but also sells their high-quality men's fabrics retail. They must have nearly 1,000 different men's shirtings on display, all with a dozen swatches or so pinned to each bolt for easy sampling. The trouble is the price--$25/yard. I think the most I've ever paid for a fabric was $18.50/yard. But anyway, the swatches:

So what did Masheka like? And how did I find it for under $25? Answer after the jump!

Peter Asks: What Man or Woman Would YOU Be?

Over at Male Pattern Boldness, Peter asks: what man or woman would YOU be? (Stylewise, that is).

This one did not require a lot of pondering: Jonathan Adler, obviously. He's an amazing artist and designer and he wears ORANGE PANTS (see above). Were I a man, these would clearly be the center of my wardrobe.

We have a certain color palette resemblance, no? (as demonstrated in another image from the pre-preg style files):

I asked Masheka (otherwise known as Cartoonist Husband) whose style he'd have, and after a glance in the mirror at his T-shirt, jeans and glasses, he went with Janeanne Garafalo.