New Pattern: Meet the Fairfield Button-up Shirt

May 2, 2016 by ThreadTheory 27 Comments

I’m really excited to share with you our brand new menswear pattern!

The Fairfield Button-up Shirt is a classic menswear staple with a modern fit and a great selection of design details. We haven’t cut any corners here – your finished project will be just as finely sewn as any shirt you find in a menswear shop!

The Design:

The Fairfield features a modern narrow collar complete with a collar stand. This collar style is a great neutral design that looks neither excessively trendy or dated.

The shirt includes a built-on button placket at center front. Built-on plackets make for less bulky seam allowances to trim and for easier pattern matching when sewing with plaids and prints.

We’ve included a nicely shaped pocket design to add to the left chest.

To fit the back of the shirt you can choose between a small pleat for a little bit of wearing ease…

…or you can sew the shaped darts to create a smart form-fitting shirt

Both variations include a yoke and yoke facing so that all shoulder seams are enclosed.

The sleeves are moderately slim and feature a proper tower placket – something that is very hard to find on most shirt patterns and that I feel is an essential element of a menswear button-up!

The sleeves also include the option for interior tabs that can be used to keep the rolled sleeves in place at the elbow.

The cuffs feature a very slightly rounded corners for added interest.

The shirt hem is curved just enough to allow the shirt to be worn both tucked in or untucked depending on the fabric choice (dressy or very casual).

The Sizing:

Now that we’ve addressed all the design features, let’s talk about who this pattern we’ll fit!

We’ve expanded our size range to extend to 4XL. You can see the complete size chart as the last product image on our website.

Our pattern includes two separate pattern files: One drafted for average figures and one for larger figures. The size ranges overlap so that you can choose which proportions you would like to work with based on the wearer’s body measurements and the measurements of their favorite shirt.

The pattern drafted for larger figures accommodates a rounded stomach and/or wide waist measurement.

I’ve included a new detailed page within our instruction booklet that I will likely add to all of our patterns from now on – it explains which the most important measurements are and how to take them.

The Extras:

We have all sorts of extras lined up for this pattern!

First of all, we’ve created a new Quick Reference Guide to accompany the instruction booklet. This is a one page set of brief instructions that you can have by your sewing machine once the Fairfield has become your tried and true button-up. You won’t need the long booklet and illustrations any more; all that you’ll need are subtle reminders of the sewing process and seam allowances. The Quick Reference Guide will provide those at a glance!

Secondly, we have free Add-on pattern pieces! When I asked you which design features you wanted to add to your button-up shirt projects you enthusiastically responded with MANY ideas. It was wonderful to have such a rich and varied checklist to work with while designing this pattern!

I didn’t want to add the huge array of design features to the base pattern because this would create an overwhelmingly large and complicated pattern and set of instructions. Instead, I’ve created the base Fairfield pattern and have also created a great selection of free “Add Ons” that we will be rolling out over the coming weeks.

Stay tuned for:

Some very trendy collar styles
A variety of cuff shapes
A few pocket choices
Short sleeves

These “Add Ons” will be added to our shop as free products (just like our Arrowsmith Undershirt pattern). When you download them you receive the PDF pattern file and the instructions for these specific pattern pieces.

The Sew-Along:

We will be hosting a Fairfield Button-up Sew-along beginning May 16th! If you follow along with the sew-along schedule you will have plenty of time to finish a button-up shirt as a gift for your dad this Father’s Day! I will post more details about the sew-along schedule in a few days so that you can begin to prepare. I’m looking forward to sewing with you again!

What about the Tissue Pattern?

As with most of our pattern releases, the Fairfield is only available as a PDF pattern right now. We like to save up the proceeds from the PDF sales to pay for the printing costs of the tissue pattern.

As always, if you really want to start sewing the Fairfield but prefer to own a tissue pattern, you can purchase the PDF pattern for now and then have the full cost of the PDF refunded at the time of the Tissue Pattern launch. To receive the refund, wait until Tissue Pattern launch day and email us with your PDF pattern attached or your PDF pattern order number. In exchange we will send you a discount code to use towards your Tissue Pattern purchase.

Also in the Shop:

I’ve compiled all of my favorite shirt making tools, notions and fabrics and added them to our shop!

We have everything from delicious Hemp & Organic Cotton Shirting to a sewing gauge designed to make spacing button holes a snap. Here’s a peek at what’s in store. I will post about these items in more detail in a separate post so that you can get acquainted with them!