The T-shirt project wrap-up and giveaway

I made it!  And whether you made 1, 2, 12, or 27.47 t-shirts this year, feel free to add your efforts to the link party below.  Here’s my recap:

1. CAbi Gather Tee knockoff
2. Peach Ginger Snap henley
3. MariaDenmark Kirstin Kimono tee
4. CAbi Gather 2.0
5. Boden Twist jersey top knockoff
6. White House/Black Market summery cowl knockoff in marigold
7. WH/BM summery cowl in ice blue
8. Madewell Toulouse tee knockoff
9. Boden printed summer vest knockoff
10. Jalie 2787
11. Sweatshirt Blazer ala Isabella Oliver
12. Isabella Oliver Wrap-around top
13. Onion 5032
14. Ottobre sugar for my oldest 
15. Onion 5039
16. Onion 5038–v-neck faux henley

I realize a couple aren’t in the collage, but the links are comprehensive.  Towards the end I was giving myself a hard time not adapting patterns for knockoffs. With the realities of being uber-pregnant and then having a newborn, I realize I need to let myself off the hook for that.  Besides, looking back over my progress, I’m surprised to see that I was looking to RTW influnces for the majority of the project, and that was certainly a goal of mine.

Favorite: it’s a toss-up between the ginger snap henley and the green zebra-striped CAbi gather tee.  They both just turned out to be pretty shirts.

Moving on: I have lots to think about in terms of color and form.  My current stash is not serving me well towards those ends, and I’m trying to squeeze that lemon dry until I can replenish with some birthday fabric.  For sure, when I find a gorgeous jersey, I’m jumping on the Burdastyle 2-2013-127 bandwagon–a pattern I’m almost certain will be a best of 2013 pattern.

Onion 5038 giveaway:  For the giveaway, leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite tee you created this past year.  If you haven’t made a tee or didn’t participate in the project, feel free to choose one of my tees or someone else’s.  I will pick a random winner on Sunday, April 7th.

Also, if you’ve done some sort of wrap up post, I’ll be happy to add a link on the project page.

The T-shirt Project #12: a v-neck faux henley

It’s the end!  I’ve been really looking forward to the end of my year-long commitment of a t-shirt a month because I don’t think I can get a SWAP together until the first project is out of the way.  I think I’m like that.  Rarely can I handle multiple projects–I like things wrapped up before I move on.

To finish, I pulled out Onion 5038, a v-neck henley with an empire seam.  I called it a faux henley because the buttons are simply sewed in place.  The v-neck makes the otherwise masculine henley shirt some femininity.  The over-shoulder gathers and the variation with the buttons up the cuff add to the girly flair.

In comparison to the other Onion patterns I’ve made, the sizing seems to run snug.  I ended up overlaying my TNT t-shirt pattern over the pattern when I was cutting, keeping the style lines from the Onion and aligning the patterns at the waist.  Indeed if I had cut according to the pattern, my top would have been about a size too small.

I lowered the empire seam by an inch and gave myself a wider SA in case I needed it (I did) to avoid the cut-the-bust problem that I always have with empire seams.  I also stuck to my rule of using a print with an empire seam as I dislike the general look of empire seams.  I will say that the use of an empire seam in this pattern makes for easy easy construction of the binding/placket.  There is no funny slashing or exactitude necessary because the bottoms of the placket are simply sewn cleanly into the empire seam.  At some point I will compare this to my henley variation tee as I love the over-shoulder gathers and v-neck but would prefer a plain front.

I have another copy of this pattern to give away, but I’ll save that for a wrap-up post for the project as it seems more fitting.

My full review of this pattern is here.

The t-shirt project: Styling a cowl? and a giveaway

One more entry to go until the end of The T-shirt Project!

I’m currently in love with Onion 5039.  The cowl on this pattern is just beautiful–it drapes perfectly, and it’s not too low cut which is swell.  You get the option of a longer tunic length or a normal top length, and the sleeves have a gathered sleeve cap with a 3/4 length with some fullness gathered with elastic at the hem or with the same fullness gathered into a fitted gauntlet type cuff.

Hating sleeve cap gathering with a passion, I copied the sleeve cap from Onion 5032, and sure enough the drafting is identical between the two so you can swap design elements between patterns (I love that Euro patterns are like this.  Silhouette Patterns allow you to do this, but they are not for my body type, but seriously big 4–why can’t we do this with your patterns?).

I tried the gauntlet sleeve with this drapey rayon knit from Stone Mountain and Daughter, and while I like it, I think the detail gets a little lost in this pattern.

When I tried the pattern again in this cotton knit also from Stone Mountain and Daughter, I tried on the cuff before I sewed it and decided that I liked the casual feel of the 3/4 sleeve ungathered at the hem (I also hate elasticated hems–it’s a Princess and the Pea complex I have).

Anyway you slice it, I can’t get over the cowl on this top.  It’s just perfect.  I’m not wholly familiar with cowls, but if I had to pick one forever, it might just be this one.  But my question readers is how do you style a cowl?  I am a habitual necklace wearer (no pierced ears) year-round, and a scarf wearer when it’s cold, but both of these options seem difficult with a cowl.  Might I need to find some cool pins?

So it’s your turn.  I’m giving away a fresh, sealed copy of Onion 5039 to a random winner.  You have until Sunday Feb 17th at midnight to enter.  To enter, leave a comment telling me how to style a cowl.  As always, make sure you comment on this post to enter yourself.

My full review is here.

The T-Shirt Project #10: picking knits for children

To keep up with my one-a-month goals for the project, I decided to make it easy on myself and make something for #1.  I have no idea when I’ll get back to sewing for myself, but definitely, I’m on a break for a little while.  I was a little disappointed about this decision, then it occurred to me that it’d be a good opportunity to write about knit fabrics and kids.  And certainly, writing about that is better than lamenting over the state of my hair (go figure that husbands just don’t understand).

First the tee.  This is Ottobre 1-2009-22.  I’ve made it before here and here in a smaller size.  It’s a great basic tee with double raglan sleeves and sleeve cuffs.  I love the double sleeves because you can use the pattern year round, but it also gives you some room to play with mixing fabrics.

I free-handed a submarine and a little sailboat to go with the white thermal knit sleeves.  The upper sleeves are a thick almost dark teal double poly knit and the main fabric is to my best guess some sort of cotton/poly/spandex blend in Noah’s favorite shade of red which he calls, “49ers red.”  Both fabrics I bought ages ago from the $2/lb table at Denver Fabrics.  This all leads me to the question of fabrics and children.

The challenges:

• Fiber Content:  the very things I love in knit fabrics are not necessarily appropriate for children’s clothing, especially for boys.  All of my rayon knits which will make yield delightfully swingy garments with lots of flow that I can mold into cool design details and which will mold to me.  But the very same fabrics just end up looking, well, girly on boys.  And though girls’ patterns do allow for feminine details like gathering and poofyness, drapey knits just aren’t as hard-wearing as a quality cotton knit.  For the few months that their clothes get worn, kids inflict major trauma on their clothes–far more wear than we would put into them in years, so it makes sense to use nicer quality fabrics for them so they have a chance of holding up.  And when your local thrift store occasionally yields brilliant quality like this illegally cute cotton Mini Boden shirt with the cow applique for 25 cents, you end up not sewing for your kids.
• Price:  Ottobre and like sources are wonderfully inspirational for the ways that they churn out creative garments with truly beautiful fabric combinations.  But sourcing multiple fabrics for a given garment can be difficult.  Most of us are close by a JoAnn, but the quality of the fabrics often doesn’t justify the expense, even with our beloved coupons.  I speak of the #$%^& t-shirt whose fabric (on sale) cost me $9/yd that I labored over only to see it last exactly 2 washes.  There are many good sources of quality children’s fabrics out there online, but their clothes take up so little fabric that it can get expensive simply because you’re not using what you have to order unless you’re utterly brilliant like Katie and can make 1 yard work into garments for all 3 of your kids.
• Sheerness:  we’ve all run into it–the proliferation of sheer knits.  I’m almost officially ready to swear off certain online suppliers who shall remain nameless with their $35 free shipping because I keep getting knit fabrics that are so flimsy and sheer.  I can always choose to wear something underneath or line a garment made with such fabric, but for children, this is neither practical nor comfortable.  The “thermal” knit fabric on the sleeves in this tee is completely see-through, which makes me think twice about making the rest into a onesie for the baby.  Sad.

The good of searching for knits for kids:

It’s not all bad when looking for fabrics for kids.  In fact, there are some distinct advantages:

• Unusual sources:  Because children’s garments take up so little yardages, you can find the required bits and pieces in strange places from which you can seldom find enough fabric for yourself.  The aforementioned $2/lb table at Denver Fabrics often yields great stuff for the kids–as long as I mind fabric content, I almost always score here.  And I’m rather confident shopping here because I can feel the fabric.  I’m not a talented refashioner (the shirt below, from a women’s tee is a rare example), but it’s certainly legitimate to go trolling for kids’ fabric among garments that are already made–or from scraps that you have in your sewing room anyhow.      
• Grab bags/mystery bundles:  I fear mystery bundles for myself.  Given my near life-threatening allergy to black, I’m always paranoid that I’m going to end up with yards and yards of nothing but black fabric.  But for kids, grab bags can be a super affordable way of getting a lot of really cool fabrics in yardages that are practical for the amount of fabric actually required for their clothes.  And they probably won’t look at themselves and think, “What, am I dead?” if they end up wearing a black garment from the mystery bundle.
• Fabric content:  though I mentioned sourcing hard wearing cotton knits above as a challenge to sewing for kids, occasionally, creepy knits that you probably wouldn’t wear yourself don’t bother your kids at all.  For instance, I find poly fleece’s ability to make you feel warm and yet smothered at the same time positively unsettling.  But it’s (ahem) absorbent, and a really practical fabric for jackets that sews up much more quickly and fuss-free than (admittedly more beautiful) other warm fabrics like wool.  Noah calls his green fleece pants I made him last year his “cozy pants.”  The title tee’s upper sleeves, made from thick, rigid poly double knit would be unbearable as a full garment, but on a tiny upper sleeve that is lined essentially with the lower cotton sleeve?–no problem.

So what say you, readers?  How do you find great knit fabrics to use for your children’s clothes?  Do you have any favorite sources?

Some good online sources of fun, inventive, and good quality knit fabrics for kids:

• Sew Baby
• The Fabric Fairy (what a great name, right?  Don’t we all want one of those in our life?)
• NR Fabrics on Etsy
• Banberry Place (Euro fabrics with a surprisingly good selection of boy themed fabrics)
• Sewzanne’s (they have single issue Ottobres in addition to their fabrics)

The T-shirt Project #9: Onion 5032, post #400, and a giveaway

Well readers, I must admit something.  Kind Maria of Maria Denmark fame sent me some Onion patterns to test, write about, and giveaway a long time ago–like at the beginning of this whole T-shirt project thing, and I’ve totally been holding out on you.  I kind of planned to get going on them at the start of fall because all 3 patterns really read fall/winter to me, but the summer heat was unrelenting and longer than average and this wacky thing called pregnancy really zapped my energy, so I have not got around to testing out the patterns until the past couple of weeks.  Mea culpa.  I’ll be making up for it in the next couple of months.

Pattern #1 is Onion 5032, a wrap or faux wrap top with an empire seam with gathered cap sleeve, 3/4 or plain, long sleeve flared slightly then gathered at the hem.

I really appreciate that the empire line on this top is lower than average (it’s almost low enough to look more like a peplum seam, and it certainly could be flared a little more to make it into a peplum top)…it makes altering for a full bust so much easier because you don’t have to first adjust the height of the empire seam.  Jalie 2804, for instance made me crazy because the bust line was so high, I had to adjust it 3 times before I could even bother with doing something about my full bust.  The fact that I could just do the FBA out of the gate and not worry was fantastic.

The crossover also extends all the way to the side seam.  I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that before on this kind of top, and it’s kind of interesting.  I have no idea what that does from a fit or drafting perspective, but it is nice to know that you won’t have the crossover cutting across your bust diagonally when you’re already cutting your top in half with the empire line.

As much as I am not a fan of empire lines in general, the addition of one makes it so easy to alter for maternity.

I also appreciate that the gathered sleeve cap is pretty minimal.  I’m not a poofy sleeve kind of girl, but the amount that’s added in the cap is just enough to add a little interest and femininity.  I used clear elastic to gather it which was really easy to do.

This fuchsia fabric was a score from the $3/lb table at Denver Fabrics.  I love pound fabric–it’s like treasure hunting, and if you’re willing to look, occasionally you come up with something really lovely like this dense (probably) rayon/lycra.  I initially thought it’d be a muslin, but it was so lovely to sew, I decided to finish it properly if it turned out even remotely decently.  This version, I used the plain back, the gathered 3/4 sleeve, and the empire faux wrap.  Though the pattern has different versions, they’re all drafted to fit into each other, so you really can pick and choose what details you like not unlike a Project Runway pattern.

 

I picked up this fine strawberry peach sherbet rayon jersey at Stone Mountain & Daughter on my 30 minute shopping spree there before we went to the Giants’ game (Yay–go Giants!) this summer.  For it, I chose the long sleeve (but kept the 3/4 length) instead of the gathered cap.  I don’t like elastic in sleeve hems–it always feels restrictive and binding to me, and ultimately leaves marks on me.  Instead, I cut a strip of fabric 1.5″ wide to face the sleeve hems.  Towards the front of the sleeve, I made 2 small buttonholes (which I had to do manually because my attachment was not working on this fine fabric).  I stitched the facings into place on the wrong sides of the sleeves, and threaded through strings I made from 1.25″X15″ strips of fabric, serged, turned, pressed, and knotted.  The strings are the mechanism for gathering the hem–I like that this adds a little decorative element, and it’s a lot more comfortable on my arms.

Overall, this is a great pattern with a lot of room for modification and variation.  My only beef about it is that the neckline is low.  I traced off the highest line, did a 1/2″ petite adjustment, and it’s still too low to wear without a cami.  Not a big deal–this is rather a common problem on this type of pattern.

My full review of the pattern is here.

As for the giveaway,  I have a fresh, sealed copy of this pattern ready to go into your own stash.  I’ll ship internationally, so all you lovely ladies reading in Oz and elsewhere can participate.

To enter, I want to know about your Onion patterns experience.  Have you sewn any Onion patterns before?  If you haven’t, take a browse around Maria’s website ShopOnion, and dream a little–what looks fun, how would you make it up? Please comment on this post so I can stay unconfused and fair.  Comments will be open until 7 pm mountain time on Sunday, November 11th. 

The T-shirt Project #8: Isabella Oliver wrap around top

 

I don’t know what pushed me over the edge on trying to replicate IO’s wrap around top:

Is it the ease of wearing or the certainty of being able to wear it pretty much through the entirety of your largest months?  Who knows, but I saw it and had a thought and decided to set about it.

Megan Nielsen has a great hack of this top in her Wrapped Maternity Top.  I decided against it (though it looks to be an excellent pattern) because I probably won’t get a lot of use out of it–I’d make it once or maybe twice, and learning another company’s block/making a muslin is time-consuming.  I’ve struggled enough to make changes to my Burdas the past month and I know their draft.  So I went to see what I had available in the stash and discovered that Vogue 8463 really was the perfect choice with a hair of modification.  Bonus?: I’d already made it (and done a little FBA), and as I’ve said before previously made garments count as muslins.

I needed to narrow the shoulders.  This pattern is meant to sit pretty wide on your shoulders if you look at the modeled photo, but it’s not helpful if you have narrow shoulders or are trying to wear it as the wrapped version.  I had originally cut a medium (this amused me briefly to think about how much I struggled with my shoulder measurements before–no wonder I had a 5″ deep un-intentional back cowl).  The nice thing about cutting too large to start with is that smaller sizes are already there.  I cut an XS in the neck and shoulders, keeping the M at the side seams only to give myself a little more room and because the M in my original version fits fine in the sides.  I also cut down the SAs to 1/4″ because that’s what I like and what I’m accurate with when I’m serging.

The biggest change I made was to lengthen the ties considerably.  Longer ties mean more wrap around which I need for my belly and because both Megan’s and the IO wrap look cool with the extra drape.  How much I thought?  Well, basically I extended the original fronts almost until I could extend them no more–18″, though I could have lengthened them maybe up to 21″.  One reason I really like this pattern is that despite having enormously long cut-on ties, it doesn’t take up much fabric.  The original calls for 1 5/8 yds which is really spare when you compare it to the 3 1/2 yds called for in Megan’s design with the cut-on ties.  With my extended ties, I only needed 2 1/8 yds (I bought 2 1/4 just in case but I did in fact not need the extra 1/8).

I found this nylon spandex at Denver Fabrics and thought it was festive and I’m a fan of nylon spandex in the fall for it’s warmth and softness.  Plus it’s ultra stretchy and I could only find rayon spandex in bad-for-me colors with the exception of a pale brown.

This top is really made at the ironing board.  There’s 7 seams which take no time to make, but there is a whole lotta hemming.  In general I’m a fan of Steam-a-Seam with nylon spandex, but I tried pressing without it so I could get a little more stretch first.  I couldn’t get any kind of a good press without something in the hem, so I opted for the knit stay tape from Emma Seabrooke.  If you’ve never tried her tapes before, go get some.  They give such a beautiful body to hems and make for a stable hem with good give–a perfect base for topstitching.  Steam a seam is great, but it makes for a crunchy hem, and it cuts down the stretch ability just a hair–not a good choice for a top like this.

Sadly, the nylon doesn’t have quite the body or drape or the stick-to-itself factor that rayon knits have.  I might try and find another knit in a yellow or coral, but we’ll see.  Also, when I made this top the first time, I was living under the illusion that I needed to shorten everything by 3″, so I don’t have near the vertical coverage on this top that I need or want, but it’s fine as a layering piece.  Also the sleeves are kind of baggy–I will chalk that up to this pattern being labeled a “jacket” instead of just a knit top.  If I make it again, I’ll chuck Vogue’s armscye entirely, trace off my TNT Jalie and use Jalie’s sleeve.

Next up are some jeans and after that some (more) knit tops and a giveaway!

My full review is here.

The T-Shirt Project #7: Sweatshirt blazer

 

t-shirt, blazer–wha?  Okay, it’s a stretch to equate a blazer with a t-shirt, but I offer the following arguments:  I set out on this project to expand my own knit fabric experiences in terms of drafting, looking at RTW, and just generally thinking differently about them (check).  Plus I wanted to look at cold weather knits beyond just wool jersey (lovely) and see what all they could do.  Good quality sweatshirting is fantastic–dense, smooth, and cozily napped on the wrong side.  Could it be tailored?  Probably more successfully than I did, but it certainly has a precedent in RTW:

Also, work in the sewing room is slow-going these days between #1 not napping anymore and me being at that point with 11 weeks to go of fatigue and discomfort.  With both the boys, I countered this general ick in my body by draping myself in the most non-feminine garment in my closet–my Met Opera hoodie that I bought on a trip with my good friend and travel buddy T.  How such a shapeless garment (one that can easily go through all of pregnancy and back again with nary a suggestion of bulk) can come to be produced by an opera company creating such clear genius as their latest Ring cycle is a mystery.  I for one welcome the irony.  But this time around I wanted to explore having a more structured garment to combat that feeling of general roundness you are inundated with in the last couple of months.  Snappy lapels would do it, so there you go, t-shirt blazer (why does this feel like I’ve just explained the Greek root of  a Japanese word?).

I started with the Everyday Blazer from Isabella Oliver as inspiration:

I really liked how the center is cut away.  It’s not just to expose your growing belly, if you think about it from a fit perspective, it’s smart design.  You don’t need to add tons of fabric to cover something that’s growing exponentially when you can just take it out of the equation to begin with.  But available in dark horrible colors and at $269, I knew I could do better at least on price and color.  From the fabric content, it looks like it IO blazer is some sort of ponte–great choice for a jacket–not a lot of stretch with a nice smooth hand.  From experience I know that the high rayon content of ponte makes me very cold in cool months, so I opted for the cozier sweatshirt fleece.  Total cost for this project is around $10.  The IO blazer is better constructed–with a lining and nicer hardware, but for $259 in savings, I’m not complaining.  I will toot my own horn by adding that MY jacket is more shapely with the princess seams (rather functional for adding without distortion).

To emulate the cut-away, I made a muslin, drew a curve on it with my French curve up towards the navel and cut it away (, transferring the curve to my pattern.     Simpler pattern work has not been done.

I chose to keep the jacket unlined and to give myself extra-wide seam allowances  to give myself the option of letting it out as I grow these last couple of months.  In reality, I probably will just wear it open, so I’m kind of disappointed I didn’t line it because catchstitching all of the hems and seam allowances down was a lot of work.  There’s nothing more satisfying in jacket making than bagging a lining.  Another day…

I fused the whole jacket minus the sleeves to give it more shape and structure and to stabilize the fleece which does have enough stretch to be problematic otherwise.  I do have to iron the lapel line before I wear it because the fabric doesn’t have as much memory as say wool, but that’s easily done since I did tape the line on the interior.  The fusible adds extra warmth too, which I won’t say no to.  Jackets are infinitely more comfortable than sweaters–sweaters feel always so heavy and lumpen–that I can get snap, lightness, and warmth in the same garment is a coup for me.  The pocket flaps are a nod–totally non-functional.  I’m always in favor of pockets, but I didn’t want to deal with welts in a knit and since I wasn’t lining this jacket, I kept it simple.  The only thing I wish is that this was a bright sunny yellow instead of the royal blue.  I’m beginning to think that royal blue is too intense and too cool for my coloring.  Live and learn–it’s still a good neutral, and good neutrals are lifelines in pregnancy wardrobes.

So often in life fitting square pegs into round holes doesn’t end well, but as it turns out, sweatshirting molds quite well into awkward places.  Give it a chance!

My full review of the blazer is here.

The T-shirt Project #6: Jalie wins every time

Whew, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted.  We had a good time at my in-laws in super ultra northern CA after the massive road trip that it requires to get to them which included a stop in the Bay area for a Giants’ game (so fun) and some good fabric shopping at Stone Mountain and Daughter and Eureka Fabrics.  I won’t take the time to sort out my purchases–you’ll see them as I sew them up I’m sure.

Back at home, it’s taken me a couple of weeks to get back in the swing of things, but yesterday I was able to crank out a badly needed tee.  To boot, I’m back on track for the t-shirt project!

I’ve been eyeing Jalie’s Criss Cross top pattern for a long time.  Years probably.  I love anything mock wraplike in nature, and the x design is really flattering.  I loved it so much that cheap me decided to “replicate” it in New Look 6729

It has a similar look–the x design across the front, but it’s a cut-on sleeve, and as I found out when I made this version, the smallest size is too wide for me across the shoulder, and the side seams have an absurd amount of ease.  The criss cross was all droopy, it didn’t cover the gap in the underlayer, and I had to put in a little triangle because it crossed too low.  I remember taking the side seams in about 4″ to help the drooping issue and even then, they flare out at the hips considerably.  I didn’t even write about this top when I made it about a year ago it was so weird.  I first considered it a wadder, but it’s worked out well for me as a maternity top.  In fact, the silly side seams have so much ease that I’m comfortably wearing this at nearly 24 weeks pregnant no problem even after my 4″ seam monkeying, and I could still pinch out about 4″ of flare from the hips.  And the X still sits funny.

What did we learn here, people?  Jalie makes better t-shirt patterns.  Period.  Is it annoying that I have to order them and pay like $12/each one instead of making a quick stop to JoAnn’s and getting a pattern for 99 cents?  You bet, but in the end, I use my Jalies so much and the fit is so great that I’m starting to think that all of those “cheap” patterns are not that great of a value.

So in thinking about PR’s Mini-Wardrobe Contest (my favorite contest!), I decided to invest in another Jalie.  I had this cool lightweight cotton crepe blend knit stripe in this pebbled peachy strawberry sherbet color in the stash.  I wanted to make a longer sleeve out of it (not the bell in the pattern but the straight 3/4 from Jalie 2921 as bell sleeves are not my thang), but I was short on fabric.  After some fussy laying out, I did have enough for the flutter sleeve that’s included in the pattern.  Sadly, I should have cut the sleeve in a single layer because I tried to do so in a double layer, I got about 80% through before I realized that one sleeve would have a massive hole in the middle of it.  I had just enough to eek out a cap sleeve from my scraps.  I borrowed the sleeve from Jalie 2921 after a quick comparison of the armscye (it’s the same, so mix and match away).

The lower front piece is not seamed to the top but simply tacked to the bottom cross piece.  Elastic holds it tight against your middle and the crossover more than covers everything.  I stayed true to my Q (32) size in the shoulders and neck and went up to an S (36) below the armscye typical.  Over my pregnancies, I’ve come to understand that the 32 never ever moves and that my starting point needs to be just one size up below the armscye.  I will need to add to the lower front obviously and maybe the bust as I progress, but for now, my sizing is pretty right on.

I changed up my maternity altering on the lower front.  I’ve always used this tutorial from Rostitchery for altering for the bump.  This tutorial is absolutely fine as long as you don’t need to add all that much.  When you start needing to add say over 1″ in the method she describes, what happens is that the side seams can kind of just tent out.  Yes, you have enough to cover your middle, but the fabric just isn’t distributed all that well.

Sandra Betzina had an alternative method on Episode 108 of Power Sewing (do you all know that you can buy individual episodes now?  Wish that was an option when I subscribed–maybe it was and I didn’t realize it…).  Instead of just adding near the side seam as in the Rostitchery alteration, she has you distribute what you need in several different slices across the front.  If I stop to think about it, this makes a lot more sense…the bump is not happening at the side seams, it’s really all in front, so why am I adding inches upon inches at the side seams?  No wonder I look back at my later maternity tops from #2 and think, man that looks kind of schmoopy.

So this time, I sliced up my lower front pattern in 3 different places parallel to CF and added 1/2″ in each section at the hem (looking like little triangular wedges).  The bonus of doing it this way is that you have not much distortion when you go to true up the bottom.  At the end of the day, I’m loving this top and it is definitely going to pop up in other flavors in the next couple of months.

My full review is here.

The T-shirt Project #5: Boden Printed Summer Vest

As I alluded to in my call for patternmaking resources (I’m still all ears), this t-shirt proved to be an exercise in pointing out that I need to know more about patternmaking.  My construction is good, but slashing at will won’t really create the gathered sections like I had hoped (note the dimple, not the gathers at CF on the lower front).

Nonetheless, this shirt is far from being a total loss.  Am I annoyed that it doesn’t look precisely like my inspiration tee?  Yes.  Is anyone else going to notice but me?  No, except I’m pointing it out to you possibly because I know you all can sympathize with not being able to make something as you have it in your head.  I’ve corrected what I did in the directions below from what I did initially with the two gathered chunks as I think I know how to accomplish what I was attempting, but someone correct me if needs be.

**As for preliminaries on this project, you’ll need to use a jersey that is not 100% synthetic.  All of those pleats at the neckline means that you’ll have to press a lot to get nice looking trim.  ITY will NOT work for this top because it won’t hold a press long enough to be secured in a pleat.  I’m using a medium weight rayon spandex blend of some variety from Denver Fabrics.  It’s dense with awesome recovery and a soft hand.  If you’re not sure about what’s in your fabric, just press a little chunk of it and see if it holds a pleat.**

Boden Printed Summer vest

Prepping your front:

1.  Using your favorite t-shirt pattern, trace off a copy of your front.  Adjust the neckline if necessary to be more of a scoopneck (in my case, my base pattern, Jalie 2921 is a v-neck, so I matched up CF and seam lines and traced off the neckline only of Ottobre 5-2007-5, a scoopneck tee).  Aleah’s Simplicity 2394 is a perfect choice for this tee.  All you’d need to do to this pattern is add the empire line, sub binding for the pattern’s neck band and go on to step 3.  The tank in Simplicity 2603 also could work with the same alterations.

2.  Add a 1″ strip from CF to the hem of the now lower front.  Mark the top edge of the strip (closer to the side seam) with a star so that you know where to put your gathering stitches later.  Your CF fold is now the inner edge of the strip.

3.  Wearing whatever version of your base tee you’ve previously made, determine where you want the empire seam to be (hint, you want it below the girls–I measured from CF to the base of my bra to get an idea).  Make a line perpendicular to CF at this level and split your pattern apart.  You can skip this part if you hate empire seams.  I understand.  98% of the time I hate them too.  If you are full-busted, please take the time to add extra length over the bust points–you can do this via some sort of FBA or by curving the seam like I described in the Toulouse Tee.

4.  Split apart your pattern along the empire line you’ve drawn, adding 2 more stars to help you remember where you need to stop gathering at the bottom edge of the upper front and the top of the lower front and 1″ in from CF, just as the first star was in step 2.  Add seam allowances to each of these sections and you’re good to go as far as the drafting is concerned.  On to construction.

Constructing the front:

The bulk of your work in this tee is obviously the pleated section at the neckline.  This is a good time to make nice with your iron.  The two of you are a team.  Together you can create lovely crispness, so relax, and enjoy the process because it’ll take a little time.

1.  When you cut out your front pieces, make a tiny clip at the stars and at CF.  Make gathering stitches from clip to clip on the top and bottom of your upper front across CF and from clip to clip across CF on the top of your lower front.  I run 3 rows of 5.0 length straight stitches, but 2 rows is adequate.

2.  Pull up the gathering stitches where you’ve put them.  Adjust the gathers as needed and sew the top edge of the lower front to the lower edge of the upper front.

3.  Cut out a strip of binding for the front and the back (I’d love to be able to do this in one step, but the pleated section is sewn into the shoulder seam, not an after-the fact embellishment, so you have to bind front and backs separately) whatever width you usually prefer.  For me, I used 1.5″ X the length of the neckline seam on the front and back – 10% of that length.

2.  Fold your binding strips long raw edge to long raw edge and press.  Bind the back neck you would normally (I fold my binding in half, clip it at the half point, match it to CB and stretch to fit while sewing.  Then I press, flip completely to the inside, and topstitch it down).

3.  Bind the front neck except don’t topstitch it into place.  Instead, sew, flip to the inside and baste the folded edge close to the fold so that the binding stays in place.  I did this by hand because I find it easier to pull out the basting stitches later.

4.  Pleat time!:  Cut a crossgrain strip of fabric 1.5″X the width of your fabric.  Mine was 62″ wide, and I used maybe 56ish in the end.  Lay the piece on your ironing board upside down and the length of the board and fold little even pleats around 3/8″ tall, pressing every third or fourth pleat.  Continue until you’ve pleated the whole strip.  Take a breath.  Enjoy the beauty you just created.

5.  Cheat or be anal  detail-oriented–choose your own adventure:  you pleated the strip upside down because if you want, you can secure the pleats in place with 2 strips of Steam-A-Seam close to the edges.  If you want to do it this way, iron them in place.  Otherwise, hand baste the pleats down adjusting and re-pressing as you need to.  I did both because I’m a type A (+).  I know it takes extra time, but you will get a nicer result if you hand-baste.

6.  Secure the pleated strip:  Remove the Steam-A-Seam from the back of the strip.  Lay down the pleated strip along the finished edge of the neckline, overlapping the strip slightly over the edge, and letting any extra length alone at the top of the shoulders for now.  Fuse the strip down.  Topstitch 1/4″-3/8″ from the neck edge, keeping the pleated section on top as you sew.  Topstitch the other raw edge of the strip, letting the outer edge of your presser foot glide along the raw edge itself–this will give you a consistent width as you topstitch.  Cut off any extra length in the strip that you may have at the top of each shoulder.

7.  Construct the rest of the tee as normal.

The T-Shirt Project #4: Madewell Toulouse Tee

Okay, playing catch-up here, here’s #4 and #5 will come tomorrow if I’m not too tired.  Then I should be on track for my one a month tee count so far for the project.

I was taken by Madewell’s Toulouse tee some months ago.

I love the tabs on the sleeves and the hidden button placket.  What I came to discover through zooming was a lowered waist seam on the front.  The cool thing about this is that you can sew on the placket pieces on each upper front, then overlap them and sew them as one into the lower front.  It’s cool because it’s difficult to get plackets lay flat on polo necklines–the bottom is always a tricky biscuit of a corner.

The original is made with a linen knit–kind of hard to find for the home sewist, but a fiber that seems popular in RTW right now.  Harts’ Fabric has some, but it’s quite spendy at $24/yd, and the 85/15 linen poly blend at $9/yd would seem to negate the beauty and breathability of the linen.  I saw some linen knit at Santa Fe Fabrics, and while totally beautiful, it was sheer.  Grr sheer.

I opted instead for a Grecian blue rayon knit with lots of beautiful drape.  I should have stabilized the neckline and shoulder seams though as they stretched a bit.  So unfortunately I have the unintentional cowl thing going on again, so while it’s less dramatic, it’s still annoying.  The buttons in the placket are hidden when pressed, but it came out of the dryer all squidgy…you can see how motivated I was to fix it.

My base pattern for this copy is Maria’s Kirsten Kimono Sleeve tee.  I brought in the shoulder by an inch on the neck edge as I needed more coverage.  If I had stabilized my neckline, I think it would have worked out well.  After you’ve morphed it into the Toulouse, it’ll look like this (except I have 5 buttons on my placket, not the 4 in my little drawing)

To split the front section into 2 pieces like the Madewell tee, decide where you want the bottom of your placket to be along CF.  Draw a line, curved if you want (I made a gentle downward curve towards the side seam with my French curve) or perpendicular to CF if you prefer (if you’re full busted, the curve will actually give you a little more length, something I wish I had done on t-shirt #5, but you’ll see that later).  Split apart the pattern along this line and add a SA on either side of the split.

To the top part of the front, I subtracted 1/2″ to accommodate the button placket.  I added the placket from Burda 12/2009/121, but if you want to add a placket to a tee, use whatever tee pattern you like, then draw a line parallel to CF and 1/2″ from CF and 10.75″  long.  The dimensions of the placket itself are: 1 7/8″ X 10 3/4″, then add seam allowances (I like 1/” because I can serge it).  Also, the placket will be folded in half and in the half of the half is the new CF.  That’s it.  

For button tabs, cut 2 pieces 2″ X 9″.

To construct:

Cut out 3 plackets, interface 1 completely with a lightweight knit fusible interfacing.  Press the plackets along the foldlines and make your buttonholes (I made 5) on the interfaced placket.  Layer one placket on top of your buttonholed placket and baste the folded edges together.

Plain placket facing the right side of the right front, sew the doubled placket to the right front (I sewed, then serged to be extra sure, but of course you can just serge).

Sew the other placket to the left front.  Crossing right over left, layer the plackets on top of each other and baste together.  Sew the lower front onto the fronts, matching CF.  As I said, the cool part is that the bottom of the placket is sewn into the waist seam, so no little funny puckers because you’re not an expert in sewing plackets!  Construct the rest of the tee per normal.

The Madewell tee has a collar band instead of a binding.  This of course looks much better than a binding, but if you’re not up for drafting a separate piece (I wasn’t) you can just turn your binding in so that it’s hidden.

The only other detail is the sleeve tabs.  Interface the tabs entirely, then fold the piece so that they measure 2″X4.5″.  Cut out an A shape on the raw edge, then sew a 1/4″ seam around the edges.  Turn the tabs and press.  Add a buttonhole in each 1/2″ from the point of your A.

When you go to hem the sleeves, sew the tabs into the hem, with the raw edge on the inside of the hem so that the tab will fold up and around the hem when you’re done hemming.  Add buttons along the shoulder seam and you’re done.