A new shirt for Bear

Back in 2009 I made a nightshirt for "Bear" and he's been wearing it ever since, except for the odd occasion when I've washed it for him, and it's showing its age.

 

[Left: 2009, Right: 2015]

Therefore, I've been scheming for a while to make him a new shirt. However, everything I've made that's had big enough scraps to squeeze out a shirt for him hasn't been a very flattering colour for his blue-grey fur, so it's taken me a while.

However when cutting out the bright pink merino recently I managed to cut him a shirt out as well. Constructed almost exactly the same way as any of my shirts, except smaller, I made this one production-line style along with my pink merino plantain of the same fabric.

 

And so, the two of us have our matching shirts, and bear is looking much better dressed!

Colour Blocked Kimono Tee

The real reason that I made the blue kimono tee is to test the pattern out as a candidate pattern for this shirt.

This shirt all started when I was preparing to cut out my pink merino plantain. I laid out the pattern pieces and saw just how much left over fabric there would be if I just cut the one shirt out of the fabric. I tried seeing if I could get a shirt and a singlet out of the fabric, but failing piecing one of the pieces of the singlet it wouldn't fit. I had thought of adding a horizontal seam across the back of the singlet to make the pieces fit, and asked other's opinion on instagram, at which point the suggestion of colour blocking came up.

I did some searching, and with some moral support from Jen I decided to have a go at making a shirt like this one I found on a google image search:

I selected some grey merino jersey from my stash that didn't have any immediate plans as the other colour for the colour blocking.

I considered a few patterns for this, but settled on the kimono tee as the most promising prospect, but decided to first make a wearable muslin.

As mentioned in this post I extended the sleeves to just above the elbow, to similar to the inspiration pic. Following the wearable muslin I also took a wedge out of the centre front and centre back, about 1" wide at the top tapering to nothing at the hem. I also adjusted the angle of the hem on the sleeves slightly.

Then I altered my base pattern to cater for the colour blocking, splitting the front and back pattern pieces in two, by drawing a line starting about 1.5" to the edge of the neckline on the shoulder seam and ending at the centre front at the hem. I then added the seam allowance to these new pieces.

If I were to do this again I would start closer to the neckline and make the seamline continue across past the centre front.

This time around I finished the neckline with a narrow strip of the grey merino and it's a much nicer finish than the clear elastic I used on the blue one. (I used the 85% rule for the length of the strip)

Overall, it's not as similar to the inspiration pic as it could have been, I probably could have added more ease through the bust. However, it's very comfy to wear as pictured here with jeans, and also works tucked into a skirt, so overall I'm pretty happy with this experiment.

Pattern: Modified Maria Denmark Kimono Tee
Fabric: Merino Jersey from the Fabric Store
Notions: Thread

A Couple of Merino Plantains

I love my first plantain. I am still surprised how much I love the cut. Before making it I was expecting it to be too full around the hips and not flattering. However, if I cut a straight size despite my hip measurement falling in the next size up, it's not as full in the hips on me as drafted. It's just the right amount of hip skimming.

Since my first version has become one of those tops pulled first out of the pile after washing, I decided that some of the merino jersey in my stash should become plantains. Merino is perfect for the plantain pattern as it has beautiful drape to it. It's definitely suited more to drapey patterns than clingy ones.

The blue version is made from some merino we got for much cheaper than most of the merino. I don't know why it was cheaper, perhaps it was the previous seasons stock or something, as there's absolutely nothing wrong with it that I can tell. It's the merino I tried screen printing on for Darren, and is essentially my "muslin merino".

When cutting out the pink version I couldn't stand how much fabric was going to be left over so squeezed some other things onto the piece, so keep an eye out for those in coming weeks.

A few people have commented about the relevance of merino jersey in hot climates (with merino being wool). While yes, it's great to wear in cold weather, it's also great in hot weather. It absorbs moisture and is breathable; ideal! It really is a wonder fabric in my eyes! (I even took the blue version on my recent trip to the gold coast, and actually found it more refreshing to wear than the cotton/lycra tanks I wore on other days)

   

I still have a pile of merino jersey in my stash, so we shall yet see what it becomes, more plantains or something else?

Pattern: Deer and Doe Plantain
Fabric: Merino Jersey from the Fabric Store
Notions: Thread

Kimono Tee

While trying to sew clothes that I know I will wear, it's easy to fall into a 'safe' zone and repeatedly make very similar items. I've been trying to keep at the back of my mind a push to mix in some experiments where I try things that aren't necessarily part of my safe zone.

This project is one of those that's very slightly outside my safe zone. The pattern is the Maria Denmark Kimono Tee, a free pattern that you can get by signing up to her newsletter. I know it really probably does still seem very safe, but I sometimes find it tricky with clothes that have positive ease but are still flattering.

I made the BL size, lengthening the sleeves by about 11cm (as described here). I may yet cut them down to the drafted length to see how that feels. We'll see.

The top is quite long, but I quite like the 'bunched' look that it gets as it comes to a rest at my hips.

I also tried finishing the neckline with clear elastic, which I probably wouldn't do again as it isn't sitting all that well, with fabric of this weight at lest.

I showed this top to Darren mid-construction and asked him what he thought of the fit, and he said it looked good except asked if I would be taking it in at the waist. Uh-oh! Despite his comment, I didn't take it in at all, as I wanted to try the loose style, as I hoped it would also make a good blousey fit when tucked into skirts. I think I've achieved this, and think it looks alright both un-tucked and tucked in.

I haven't actually worn this yet, but look forward to it. Hopefully the merino will make for a nice cosy but adaptable work top.

Pattern: Maria Denmark, Kirsten Kimono Tee
Fabric: Merino Jersey from The Fabric Store
Notions: Thread, clear elastic

See Also: SewSquirrel, Crafting A Rainbow, La Sartora

What about you, do you try and sew outside of your safe zone? What proportion of your projects are 'safe' vs 'experiments'?

19 t-shirts and counting

Taking stock of both my blog and my wardrobe while I'm on my Christmas break has reminded me that I have now made quite a lot of t-shirts, very few of which have been blogged.

I made my first t-shirt in early 2011, which I made by tracing a pattern off a t-shirt that I'd bought and liked the fit of. Throughout subsequent iterations I have tweaked the fit until I have reached a point I'm happy with.

 

One thing I have tweaked is the shoulders of the shirt. In the photos above you can see that the shoulders are fairly narrow, which I wanted to fix. To start with I thought that I could fix it by adding some width to the shoulder seam. However doing this ended up with a weird too-wide shoulder happening. Upon closely examining this version, I tried removing some height from the sleeve cap, and that pretty much perfectly fixed the problem (see below pics).

 

However, as mentioned recently, the shirt with the too-wide shoulders made a great base for screen printing on:

 

I also modified the neckline to be a round neck rather than a v-neck, and as I alluded in this veeeery old post, there were some hiccups with that process.

The first round necked version I made is shown above. I simply converted the v-neckline into a round neckline and added a band the same width as on the v-neck. This did not work. The neckbands on t-shirts like this need to have the inner folded edge one length, and the outer edge stitched to the shirt a slightly longer length. If not they stick out from the body. Generally the stretch in the fabric accomodates this, stretching into a nice curve.

Now if you imagine a nice narrow neck band, there isn't a great deal of difference between the shorter and longer lengths. However, with a wide neck band there is a great deal of difference, meaning that either the neck band has to be considerably shorter than the neck hole it's going into, or it will stick out away from the body. (this isn't an issue with the v-neckline as the v at the centre front removes a lot of the length difference)

In this version I went with the considerably shorter band, which was very difficult to stitch in, and has led to some puckers in the neckline, and even then doesn't quite sit flat against my chest the way it should.

In future versions I reduced the depth of the neckline and had a narrower neck band (so the finished neckline depth was about the same), which worked very well...

  

 

Unless I don't quite stretch the neck band enough when attaching it, as in this version where the neckband usually sticks straight out, or if it sits flat has unattractive folds in it:

I have played around with the sleeve length, making short, elbow and long-sleeved versions

 

While many versions have been made with "normal" t-shirt fabric (I'm not 100% sure but probably cotton/poly-lycra fabric), I've also made a few out of merino jersey (the green and black v-necked versions above, and the turquoise one with the dodgy neck band, and the ones pictured below).

I am massively in love with merino jersey. Warm in cold weather, breathable in hot weather, and doesn't hold a smell like other fabrics. Perfect for travelling, and to be honest pretty much all other times. And with good quality merino perfectly comfortable to wear against the skin.

 

It's pretty standard for me to wear a long sleeved black merino t-shirt under my outfits in winter. After making a first one, I made two more for the following winter.

Some other versions of the pattern I've done are to add some looser sleeves (by reducing the taper) and a smidge more ease through the side seams, and making out of a heavier weight knit, to make a lightweight sweater:

 

And lastly, leaving the sleeves off I have made a great tank-top/singlet. This one is made from merino too, and really is great in summer, including for exercising in. Rather than sewing a normal-tshirt neckband on the tank I cut a strip of the fabric and folded around the edge of the arm and neck holes to finish them. Incidentally, this shirt was a bonus top, as I managed to squeeze the pieces for both the tank and the t-shirt on the piece of fabric that I'd bought

And so that's 19 t-shirts (or derivatives) from my t-shirt block so far (or 21 if you count the wrap cardigans that I made also based off this pattern). And I expect I'll make plenty more as these and my RTW t-shirts wear out.

Screen Printing Workshop

This is another terribly overdue blog post to tell you about the screen printing class that I took at Handmakers Factory in July.

I didn't really know what to expect from the class, but I knew that if I didn't take some ideas with me I'd end up struggling to come up with something good to print in the class. So, in preparation I printed off some ideas the night before. As I didn't have any better ideas, I brought along some ingress related designs. I also brought along some fabric to print onto.

When we started the class we got a quick run through of the general technique and then learnt about how to make templates. Of course, I decided to start with the most complicated of the designs I brought with me. There was logic behind my madness; the design required two colours, so it made sense to start with it, as the first colour would need to dry before I could print the second colour.

 

The first step was cutting out the templates, the second step was printing the first colour. I was happy to discover that I could print 4-5 versions of the design before it started to bleed and need washing to start again.

  

Next I had to carefully line up the printed fabric with the screen to print the second colour. This step was pretty tricky, but I'm quite happy with how it came out.

(For those that are interested, this is an Australian themed play on the Resistance Logo that we designed for some keyrings. Resistance is one of the two teams in Ingress, and is the team that I play on)

After successfully printing my first design I got working on a (more simple) second ...

 

and third design...

I was very happy with how much I managed to get done in a day:

I have since sewn some of the fabric up, into bags...

 

And a merino t-shirt for the boy...

And I also printed onto the back of a t-shirt that I'd previously made for myself but rarely wore...

Overall, I had an amazing day at the class, I would recommend it to anybody that is considering trying screen printing. I want to print more stuff now! I have a stack of merino that we bought to make shirts for the boy, and am hoping to print some designs onto those too, once we have some designs.