Tower Plackets

includes a tower placket

As mentioned in a previous post, I had the pleasure of taking a class on classic shirt details from Pam Howard last weekend. The very last technique covered was the tower placket, the traditional placket found on most men's shirts.

I was totally intrigued and wondered if, perhaps, some day, I too could make a tower placket. There wasn't time to actually try one in the class, but I watched Pam make one. Pam is very dexterous and can fold, press and top-stitch the most amazing details ever. This, as it happens, was better than reading an explanation, better than technical drawings, and almost as good as trying it myself on the spot.

Back at home, I found a pattern - Vogue 1204 - in my stash with just such a placket. I doubt I'll ever make the shirt in this pattern (and definitely never those skinny jeans), but it does contain the tower placket. I'm applying this sleeve finish to another pattern - Vogue 8746.  V 8746 is a bit of a sleeper, I think. I like the shoulder pleats and the collar on view A.

Pattern adapted to include the tower placket

The directions for making the tower placket in 1204 made absolutely no sense to me. Even the technical drawings looked wrong. But somewhere in the deep recesses of my little brain, I could still see Pam's nimble fingers pressing, turning, folding and simulating where to top-stitch.

Voila! It worked. I did have to re-do my first one, but the second and third were fine. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Pam.