Shirt front plackets, was collar question

Much snipping for change of topic...

The major difference between home sewing methods of shirt construction
and factory methods lies in the construction of the front plackets (home
sewing patterns typically use a separate, sewn-on band -- rtw plackets
are cut-on, interfaced and turned and sewn right on the shirt body --
a much neater and easier finish.)

That sounds a lot like what this patteren called the front facing.

What I'm talking about here is the long band down the front of a man's
dress shirt that's 1 1/2" wide and has the buttons or the buttonholes.

Most of the home sewing patterns I've seen have you cut a straight strip
of fabric and attach it to the body of the shirt to make those bands, which
gives you yet another place you've got to cut and sew perfectly straight lines
or things get wonky.

Ready to wear uses a 2.75" extension off the CF of the shirt body, and
interfaces it, folds it twice, and stitches and presses it flat to make
the front button or buttonhole bands. Much easier, faster, and more
accurate.

Here's how you'd draft the changes on the pattern, for a woman's shirt.
For a man's shirt, swap right and left in the instructions below, which
derive from Connie Amaden Crawford's Guide to Fashion Sewing -- she's
the one who taught me basic drafting.

**The standard 1.5" shirt placket, and how to draw it.**

Here's the right side placket, and how to construct it:
-Make two copies of the front pattern piece, adding a 2.75" extension to
the pattern piece from the center front. Mark one of them "Right
side".
-Start with the CF line of the shirt. Notch it top and bottom.
-Draw two lines 3/4" on each side of the CF line. That's going to be the
actual shirt placket.
-Measure over 1/2" from the line that you drew that's farthest from the
shoulder. Notch it at top and bottom, too.
-Measure over 1.5" from that line you've just drawn (away from the
shoulder), and draw one more line.

That's your right front pattern piece. Now to sew it up:
-Cut a 1.5" wide strip of fusible interfacing, and fuse it to the wrong
side of the fabric, right at the edge.
-Fold the fabric to enclose the interfacing (you'll be folding on the
notches farthest from the shoulder). Press.
-Fold once more, same direction, at the second set of notches (CF line).
press.
-Sew 1/4" in from that last pressing, catching all layers.
-Open the placket out flat and press -- this gives you a 1/4" flapdoodle
on the outside of the shirt, toward the shoulder.

-------

Now for the left front placket -- if you look at the second copy of the
pattern piece you've made, it's exactly the same as the right side (so
you get to cut the front of the shirt double! Only thing that changes
is the position of the notches for the left side placket. But just for
completeness, let's draw a separate left side.

--Grab that other pattern piece, and label it as the left.
--Measure 1/2" in from the cut edge, and notch it top and bottom.
--Measure over 1.5" and notch it top and bottom. The CF line is
still 3/4" farther on from the last line you've drawn here.

Sewing the left placket (underlap).
-- Cut another 1.5" wide strip of interfacing and fuse it to the
wrong side of the left shirt front, 1/2" over from that cut edge.
(Yes, there really is 1/2" of un-interfaced material on that edge)
-- Press the cut edge over the interfacing... so you're turning that
1/2" of material over the interfacing.
-- Roll the interfacing over, so you're pressing at the second set of
notches.
-- Topstitch at 1/4". Done.

Once you figure out the roll under and stitch bits, it's an incredibly
fast way to make a shirt placket. Turn, press, turn, press, sew, press and
you're done! It's really amazing! And if you're working with something
that has a horizontal pattern to it, like my beloved plaids, IT ALWAYS
MATCHES!!!!! YAHOOOOOOOOO!

------------
In practice, what I do is to draft the 2.75" extension on the shirt front,
mark the CF with clips top and bottom, and ignore putting the marker
clips on for the right and left sides (Connie will give me one of Her Patented
Disapproving Looks for not notching, but I haven't screwed this part up yet.)

I take the shirt fronts to the ironing board, and figure out which one
is the overlap (since I mostly make men's shirts), and fuse my precut
1.5" wide interfacing strip to the edge, fold and press, and sew.
Then I take the underlap side and my big clear quilting ruler, and drop it
over the shirt front edge so I'm covering 1/2" of shirt fabric, then
fuse the next strip of interfacing on, press, roll, press and then
topstitch, and I'm done. When I've been sewing someplace where I don't have
access to the ruler, a strip of 1/2" wide tape has worked well for a
spacer.

Anyhow, when you're ready to tackle a tailored shirt, there are several
minor changes that you can make to the methods and order of construction
that will vastly speed up the construction process and give you as good,
if not better, results than the standard pattern instructions. Margaret
Islander shows most of them in her Shirts, etc. video; Connie has them
in her Guide to Fashion Sewing and in the new patternmaking book that
should be out this fall. Both of these ladies come from teaching patternmaking
and sewing to folks headed into the RTW industry, where time is money.
I just wish I'd been taught using these methods from the start.

Kay