Cross Designs

One of our lovely readers recommended Cross Designs to us.  According to their website, it looks like they make a variety of clergy shirts, including features we've discussed like:  T-shirt material, 3/4 sleeves, curved side panels, even cap sleeves.  They don't have photographs, but you can see sketches of some pretty cute ladies' shirts (even maternity!) here.

Prices aren't terrible, either.  Even with the falling dollar, they seem to be under $100 each.  I don't know how much shipping to the U.S. would cost. If anyone has a photograph of one of these shirts, we'd love to post it!

ETA: I looked more deeply on their website and found two photos, attached here:

Another Maria Sjöden Update

So, Maria was nice enough to send me a sample shirt as a thank you for the publicity.  I thought I'd take this chance to review it for you.

I still can't afford one until I pay off my epic Lasik bill, but if I had money to burn, I would buy out her inventory.  The shirt is profoundly COMFORTABLE and fits really nicely.  She sent a small, and it fits perfectly, even though almost no other clergy shirt company makes an off-the-rack size that fits me.  (I haven't tried the WomenSpirit small yet.) The fabric on Maria's shirt is really soft and stretchy without feeling artificial.  It's a really nice knit.  It feels like wearing a mock turtleneck.

I don't even mind walking around looking like a Lutheran wearing this shirt. :)  I wish she made some styles compatible with the Episcopal collar, but maybe we'll create such a market for her shirts here, she'll be interested!

Where, oh, where are black sleeveless shirts?

After returning the pillowcase that Almy sent me as a sleeveless shirt, I went on a hunt for an extremely short sleeved or sleeveless black shirt that I could convert to a clergy shirt.

There are none to be found.  I've checked Gap, Old Navy, Target, the mall, Bluefly, Overstock.com, LandsEnd, Eddie Bauer, all the usual suspects. Sleeveless button ups are soooo not in this season.  Curses.  I tried to ignore all the gorgeous feminine blouses that ARE in and would be SO FUN to wear to work.  (I love the swingy jacket with a long camisole underneath. Sigh.)

The closest I found was at Target, but beware:  Their Merona white and black shirts do not button all the way up, which you cannot tell on the webpage.  The Mizrahi white shirt does button all the way up, but is VERY shiny and a bit off white, which always looks weird with a collar, I think.

I did find this shirt at Target.  Not black, but still cute and easily adaptable:

I then went into NY and Company, which I never do.  I associate NY and Company with clothes my more fashionable friends wore in college, so never really considered them for "grown up" clothes, but now that I can no longer afford Banana Republic and Ann Taylor consistently, I was really, really impressed at the offerings of NY and Company.  (And they have a AAA discount! AND their shirts were buy one get one 50% off!)

These shirts won't work with the jackets I bought, but they will look great on their own this summer.  They had four different options in black, alone, though only one in my size. Anyway, I bought these:

If you can wear yellow, they also had the most beautiful yellow shirt with subtle white stripes that was really lovely.  The website also has white, lavender and rose colored shirts.

If you find sleeveless black button up shirts, let me know! I'm still eager to wear the cute short sleeve jacket I found at Target this spring!

The Bite of the Benefit of the Doubt

Summer is coming and most of my three-year-old clergy shirts are starting to show their wear and tear, particularly in the. . .ahem. . .underarm area. They've worked fine all winter, layered under sweaters and jackets, but I can't bear to expose them to summer's light.

So, I went on a mission. I bought two, very inexpensive, short sleeve jackets at Target and Kohls. I thought I could pair them with an Almy sleeveless shell.

Why do I keep going to the same well over and over again, even though there is clearly no water there?

The shell came today and this is how it fits:

The shoulders fit great, but the rest of it is literally two rectangles sewn together--completely shapeless.  When I put the jackets on, there is eight inches of material beneath them.  Keep in mind, this is the smallest shell they sell, and I am 5"4' and 120 lbs.  I'm on the small side, but not extremely so.

I thought briefly about having it altered, but then decided for the $36 I spent on it, and the minimum of $20 it would cost to get it altered, I could buy nearly four short sleeve shirts at Target and just adapt them, so the shell is going back in the mail tomorrow.

oh happy day! cheap shirts at target. AND, detailed instructions on converting shirts.

Would you like an inexpensive, easily converted, cotton/stretch, machine-washable, short-sleeve shirt? That looks like a normal shirt when you take the collar off, no less?
Like, say, this?

Ok, it does have poofiness at the shoulders. Get over it. This is a great investment!

Here's how to do it.

Go get this shirt at Target: The Mossimo Pintuck Henley. It was $12.99 last week, but this week I can't find it on the website, so you better hustle. Buy several. It's got a nice band/mandarin collar style. Hurry.




Bring it home. Sew a button on the outside back of the neck, just where there's a buttonhole on your 'official' clergy shirts. See this photo below. This is a good way to use up small buttons. No one's going to notice it, so use colors or whatever you've got on hand.











Got that? Good. Now sew a button on the INSIDE of the FRONT of the collar, as high up as you can get it, just above where the outside-facing top button is (see photo below). I'd recommend using very small BLACK buttons. That way, when you wear the shirt as a normal shirt (sans white plastic collar), the button is less noticeable. Capiche?

In this shirt, a size SMALL takes a 14.5" collar.


Those are the best instructions I can give about converting shirts in general. You can use these same instructions to convert a basic button-up shirt, as long as you rip out the fold-down part of the collar and sew the seam back up.

The real trick is to put that front button as high up on the neck as you can get it; normal (non-clergy) shirts just aren't built to ride that high around one's neck, and for it to look presentable (and to avoid making the plastic collar into weird shapes) it's best to accommodate it with higher button placement.

Very important technical details.

whoa whoa whoa!

found via comment from a CollarThis friend on the website of a swedish designer. thank you, nice person!

hope this designer speaks english, because her stuff is Very Nice.

another potential convert

I bought a shirt today. This is how it looks if you mock up a collar.

(Store wrinkles intact).

Far more casual than your classic black, and the buttons show, and it's got those weird sleeve holder-upper tabs.

Thoughts?

potential converts?

Not the heathen! (Heavens, no.)



But maybe these shirts.



Gap has this one in brown and white, which looks like it might be easy to convert. But can you wear a BROWN clergy shirt? I'm not sure that's a good idea.



If you're looking for a grey shirt to convert, this one at Ann Taylor Loft might do you just right.



However, you can get a decent grey clergy shirt that is fitted and has all the holes punched for you at Womenspirit. I'm a big fan of mine.

yes. shoulders in church.

Some rather conspicuous silence in this space lately: mostly due, I suspect, to the fact that we all found things to wear and then went back to actually doing our jobs.
However, now that summer has arrived in full force, and the air conditioning in our narthex is so broken that I had to get the bishop a DISH TOWEL with which to mop his brow the other day, I find myself again with few suitable options.

Target to the rescue. This sleeveless shirt converted easily.* It's fairly well cut. It's $18. What more could you ask for in a sleeveless black clergy shirt?

All of which raises yet another one of those implied questions: do you feel funny wearing a sleeveless shirt to church on Sunday mornings?

*To convert: use seam ripper to rip out foldy-down part of the collar. Re-sew the seam. Sew small button on the back of the neck (outside) and right in the front of the collar (on the inside, a little high). Done.

UPDATE: 'might this actually work?'

Remember this old post? Well, I got my Womenspirit fitted blouse today, and it fits like a charm.
Except for two things:
1. by the sizes on their website, I should have ordered a full size larger (but the size smaller fits perfectly); AND,
2. the neck is just about choking me. This must be a result of them thinking that the person who can fit into a real size 2 will be wearing a size four (see advice about size chart below), because I don't think I have a wrestler neck. So, may have to do some creative working on that one.

But overall it looks great in the grey fabric, falls nicely, looks nice with jeans, and is a MAJOR step in the right direction. Hooray!

So, if you're going to order, look at their size chart and choose a full size smaller, at least, than what the chart says.

Another J. Crew find

At the heavenly Lynchburg J. Crew outlet today, (I know it is heavenly because it is so difficult to find--it's almost mythical. Golden lights and harmonic sounds should emanate from it as you draw near.) I found this shirt on sale for $20. (It currently retails for $75.

I haven't decided whether to modify it for clerical wear, but it certainly could be done. I'd button up first if I were you, but who am I to judge?