Men's Drop Sleeve Shirt Fabric

[Dana Repp]

I need to re-make my husbands drop sleeve shirt.  My first attempt was pretty sad (downright aweful) so I need to take this on again.

It will be for a working class impression farmer/ laborer.  What fabric would be best and most durable?  Is there a color that was more common? What about patterns or should those be avoided?

Just how blousy should the shirt be?  The pattern I used originally I ended up taking it in quite a bit because he looked like he was wearing a camp tent instead of a shirt.   

Thanks for your input! 

[LissaWilson]

Well, plaid is always a good choice, but other prints that are well spaced and geometric are possibilities as well. We've had some conversations that white was by far the most common color of shirt in the period, but not very practical for farming and dirt. The shirts overall are pretty blousy, although a camp tent does sound a bit big  . Have you tried looking at some of the photos of working men posted on here? I don't have the exact links right now but they have been very helpful to me in helping dh put together his working impression.

[Dana Repp]

Thanks Lissa.  I think I will go with the solid shirt, and for our purposes white may be nice because I have the luxury of stain removers and bleach if necessary. 

[Joanna Jones]

Well.. they had stain removers and "bleach" as well - boiling water and the sun!  White is actually easy to boil up clean and bleach in the sun.  I think it is harder to keep whites white for us than for them (unless you can hang out your laundry).