Dear readers,
Shirtmaking may very well be my favourite kind of sewing. The clean stitching over neatly pressed cotton is just incredibly satisfying. But some of those traditional details do take a little practice. The tower placket is one of them. It looks intimidating in diagrams, and the first time you attempt it, things can go sideways in several creative ways.
I have three tips that, together, make the tower placket feel manageable every time. I also have a free template and a full YouTube tutorial if you want to practice before your next shirt. Links are at the bottom.
1. The iron does 60% of the job
This is not an exaggeration. The tower placket is almost entirely a pressing exercise. If your fold lines are crisp and straight before you go anywhere near the machine, the sewing is easy. If they are not, no amount of careful stitching will save it.
Use a pressing template to pre-press your placket fold lines. The template gives you consistent, straight lines without measuring each time. Press the folds sharply, let the piece cool, and you are most of the way there.
2. Get the placement right
Right side of the placket to wrong side of the sleeve. Narrow side of the placket to the narrow side of the sleeve opening. This trips people up because it feels counterintuitive the first time. Commit this to memory and check it every time before stitching.
3. Stitch the V at the top of the opening
The small V at the top of the sleeve opening should be stitched like a welt pocket, not just caught in the final topstitching. This means stitching a small triangle or bartack through all layers at the top of the slash before you wrap the placket around. Do not rely on the topstitching to hold everything together at that point. This is what makes the inside of your placket as clean as the outside.
If you want to practice before your next shirt, my tower placket template is available for free, along with a full video tutorial on my YouTube channel.
Happy sewing,
Delphine