This got a lot bigger than I expected. If you are not interested in making your own pirate shirt save some time and skip this post.
Here are some design and construction notes for the pirate shirt for those you might be new to drafting sewing patterns. First I always suggest once you have your pattern, you make a “muslin” or test garment out of cheap or scrap fabric. Old sheets from a thrift or charity store is a good way to get large pieces of fabric for almost nothing.
The shirt is about as simple as you can get as there are only a few pattern pieces and no tailoring required. The pattern pieces are Front, Back, Collar, Sleeve, and Cuff. Two sleeves and two cuffs are required but the pieces are mirror images and since the pattern pieces are completely symmetrical that does not even matter. The symmetry allows all patterns to be half-patterns which will be cut on a fold of fabric.
If you already have a “block” or a favorite shirt pattern there are only a few changes required to get the right pirate “style”. Those change the neckline to a V-neck, lengthen the shoulder line, and if necessary covert the Centerback, Centerfront, and Sides to straight, vertical lines – no tapering, no curved lines, and remove all darts if they exist. You need to add a stylistic feature I will call the Shoulder flap. Also the sleeve width will be increased and the cuff pattern reshaped. Since the shoulder length and sleeve width will change the sleeve cap will need to be redrafted. The Collar is a complete new piece to draft.
I will provide some details on the neckline and shoulder flap and only a little about the other topics in this post. I can try to address other issues if there is interest or questions later in this thread.
If you want to double check your understanding of the process I am about to describe for the neckline you can make a small paper example to try things out. I am providing a diagram you can print, cut, and fold to make sure it all works to your satisfaction. If you print it out now hopeful both the post and the diagram will make more sense.
The front V-neck is self-faced, meaning there is not a separate piece of fabric or binding attached to the garment front. I would construct the Front completely before attaching it to the Back. Draft the shirt front with the bottom of the “V” where you want it to fall on your chest. Mark the “V” from this centerfront line to both shoulders and stay-stitch along both lines . This will help the fabric hold it's shape while you construct and wear it. The neckline will then be less likely to stretch out. You will be folding along this stitch line later.
Looking at Jod's neckline, his inside “neckband” looks pretty wide –perhaps 5/8 inch (15 mm) or more. Determine how wide you want your “neckband” to be – and double it. Double because you will first fold one half under to the inside, and then fold it in and under again. This will put the raw edge inside the fold for a finished look. This is called a self-facing which will be stitched to the front. So the double allowance in my example would be 1 1/4” (30 mm)(or more). You are going to draft your cut-line to the TOP AND INSIDE of this stay/fold line. The first fold is slight less than half the total allowance because you will take up a little fabric for the two folds if you still want a full 5/8 inch (15 mm) at the end. Here you want to test your folds with a scrap of your actual fabric to help determine the exact allowance. Once you know the allowance – that will be where you mark your cut line for the neckline. You then cut straight down the centerline of the “V” down-to but NOT THROUGH the stay-stitch line. Fold in the first half, fold again at the stay-stitch folding line putting the facing to the back of the neck opening. For new sewers pressing (not ironing) each of these folds are important, critical tasks. It will make the construction easier and more accurate. You want accurate sewing to form a good “V”. The facing should now lie directly behind the front. You will notice that at the very bottom of the “V” there was not enough fabric to make a full double thickness of fabric. That is just the way it goes. And I think that is why I see the bottom of Jod's “V” is a little wonky in all the images. (I suggest a possible fix for this below.) You then sew the “V” with the Front side up and the “facing” folded under. Topstitch from one shoulder down the “V” “almost” to the centerfront (which is below the bottom of the “V” opening). You will get a cleaner look if you stop a stitch or two before the exact bottom then turn and sew straight across the centerfront a couple stitches and then continue up the other side. This avoids a sharp corner at the very bottom which can pull or restrict the fabric. When you sew, your sew line is JUST LESS THAN the width of the facing so that you ensure you are catching the outside edge of the facing in your stitches underneath the Front. (By the way that edge was created by your first fold.)
This next section is optional but personally I would make one improvement to this simple approach. I do not want to add much, but I can hide a re-enforcement for just the bottom of the “V”. Twill-tape is a thin, narrow, tightly woven tape or ribbon made specifically NOT to stretch, so the finished garment holds it shape. I would use twill tape and add it only at the bottom – inside the fold so it is largely, but not completely hidden. To hide it, the twill tape needs to be narrower than your seam allowance, but it is available in different widths.
When I make the first fold I cut a perhaps three-inch (75 mm) long piece of twill tape and place it close to the inside of the fold (where there just was not enough fabric to make the double fold) and let it extend down until it crosses the centerline and goes below the bottom of the “V”. Then I would run a set of stitches down the center of the tape to attach it to the Front. I would do this to both sides of the neckline. The second fold will then cover the raw edges, the new stitches, and the twill tape - all inside the sandwich of the double fold. When you make both of the second folds you should see the tapes overlap at the bottom. Trim them VERTICALLY at the centerline to remove the overlap. We placed the tape close to the fold so it will also be caught when we do the top-stitch (as described above) all the way to the bottom.
I would not place tape along the entire neckband as the images show it is very floppy and we do not want a rigid, straight-line neckline. You could also use a narrow strip of the same garment fabric instead of twill tape. It will blend in better but just not be as strong.
With regard to the back of the cracker-jack collar mentioned in earlier posts, it should not be as long as a traditional pattern would have you make it (if you find one). Look at the images and again decide how far down the back you want it to go. Also it looks to me that the corners of this draping collar are not square-cut, but instead have rounded corners. Even in the traditional collars they were not 90-degree corners. The sides of the collar tended to taper in (slightly) as they went down the back. Personally I would include this detail in the design and then cut it an angle to have the bottom edge parallel “to the deck”. This make the corner slightly MORE than 90-degrees.
Next ,the shoulder flap construction. In a normal shirt the Front and Back would meet at the top of the shoulder. That is also the case here but the seam itself is hidden by a “flap” which lies overtop the seam. This is easy to accomplish. First decide how far you want the flap to come forward of the shoulder-line or shoulder seam line. As a quick guess I will say 1” (25 mm). With that dimension we want to add TWICE that width between the Back sewing line and its seam allowance. To make the draft the easy way, first mark the existing seam allowance on the Back at both shoulders. We are going to do what is call Slash and Spread. Cut off AND SAVE this allowance(the slash). Now tape some paper behind the Back and add a new line which is parallel to the old shoulder line (which should be a straight line) but which is TWICE your flap dimension away (the spread). You want to add a line halfway between the old shoulder line and the new line. This is a fold line. Lay the pattern piece face-up and fold the new extension back over itself at the fold line. With the new paper folded, this should bring the seamline back into its original place. Align the seam line and the edges and tape the old seam allowance you saved in place on top of the new paper. When you unfold the paper you may see you need to connect the lines between the old pattern, across the new piece of paper, to the old, but repositioned seam allowance.
During construction you will still sew the Front to the Back at the newly positioned seam line. The extra fabric you added will now fold over the seam to the front and then fold over itself to the back. You have now created the flap. Press this edge. Edge-stitch along this fold to give a sharp edge and keep the fabric from billowing apart. Do NOT sew this flap to the Front. It is held in place only at the ends, when the collar is attached at one end and when the sleeves are attached at the other.
If the pattern you are using does not already take it into account, make the shoulder line longer than normal so the shoulder/sleeve seam (armscye) falls down the arm, not at the top of the shoulder. Also the entire sleeve width should be increased from top to bottom. Your pattern should have one-piece sleeves with straight-line sides. Since you will have a half-pattern, add half the extra width to the side (not the center) of the pattern. For example add a new cut line1” (25 mm) out and parallel to the old edge of the sleeve pattern to make the sleeve 2” (50 mm) wider. You can also experiment with making the new edge lines curved. For example you might want it wider at the elbow than the biceps or forearm.
