TnTee #sewcialists mini challenge

All cut out and ready to get sewn a month ago. I just finished the last one yesterday.

Things got busy!

 I make a lot of tshirts off the same pattern. I traced it off a t shirt that fit me, and have refined it from there.

And I cut out a batch of them on one evening.

Trying to grain up the fabric and get the biggest leftover piece for the collar (upper left corner of fabric here), meant I cut the sleeves on the fold (bottoms folded up equally) and let the leftover space between them determine their length (at bottom of photo). I had to piece the collar, which didn't really show.

Cutting down an XXL shirt for myself, here estimating where the logo will go. 

I am short, and I love logo shirts, so I do a lot of this.

Another tshirt, this one in black bamboo, same layout as first shirt.

This shirt was not touched. Yes, we date back to when Excel was Microplan. That's Mr I Worked On The Manual. He does have magic Excel powers.

I picked the sleeves off to make sure I could get all of their width. Yes, that was boring, but it was worth it. That's what I do on Saturday nights while watching Svengoolie horror classics; unpick seams. Think this one was The Wolfman.

Not that long, but I did add a little at the cuff for width later. It fits just fine.

Another t, adding stay tape to the back neck and shoulders to all of them one by one.

Those old serger spools come in handy for tape. I had to cut it in half lengthwise. It wouldn't iron to this poly, I don't know what it's issue was.

Use a thousand pins to add the collar

Sewing the tag on wrong

Tag sewn on right (used white stay tape for this shirt)

All I sew with is a sewing machine, reduced the pressure on the presser foot, use a zig zag stitch, and I test the stitches before I start every time. Sometimes I use a ballpoint needle, sometimes a stretch needle, sometimes I forget and use whatever is in the machine.

But I always test.

And I always prewash.

And I try very very hard to get the fabric ongrain first.

Enjoy!

Birthday shirt in a day

Almost one year exactly, just after the raging success of his plaid shirt and vest, I took my son to District Fabric to pick out material for his next shirt.

photo from http://districtfabric.com/photos/

He picked a rayon knit.

This one.

I'M BLIND!!!!!!!!!!!

As it was his 16th birthday today, it seemed time to make good on the promise.

A promise that needed a knit stitch that worked.

Now I really don't have any one brand of sewing machine that I love or hate anymore than another. My Bernina bugs me, but it is paid for, and I have a billion dollars tied up in those presser feet. And I thought about that when I bought the walking foot for it (on Ebay) last spring.

I did borrow a Brother when the Bernina was in the shop, and I disliked it immediately

EXCEPT

for the lightning stretch stitch.

photo from http://www.erinsayssew.com/brother-es2000-sewing-machine/

I could not borrow one, so I bought a rebuilt one on the sale rack. This one has one hundred stitches (if you include the buttonholes), about 98 of which I will never use except to make a blog post. Still debating taking it back this week. It is a really nice stitch.

That was yesterday.

So now I need a pattern that fits him. 

The male members of the family do not share my fitting issues: they all need stuff that is small and they like it more fitted than most menswear patterns.

So I worked from clothing I knew the fit of already.

It's tracing and connecting the dots from here, onto tracing paper.

Truing up the lines

A little transfer paper and a wheel for the curves

Truing the side up  (matching the collar seam mark the marker is pointing to) and then folding in half

A front and back collar line

I cut one side out for the front, and the other for the back.

The sleeve head came from this shirt, the sleeve body from another knit shirt. Handy that I'm drafting at a table right next to the laundry, many models to choose from.

Preshrunk and ready (well, it would not lay out properly, so I had to cut the pieces on a single layout. We're skipping the sweary parts)(and the part where laying out the fabric made my eyes hurt)

first thing you see when you open the box

and just in case you missed it before.

If you love your Brother sewing machine, don't read the next paragraph.

There's no speedy work on this machine, and the needles they provide make a horrid clunking sound going through fabric. The drop in bobbin does not like to be threaded in, and it is deeply picky about tension and how it's wound. The stitch 'cycle' sometimes will not clear the thread over the bobbin at the end. You can't adjust the bobbin tension. I guess I am a front loader bobbin person. And no, I don't like the on-machine threader. Or the needle always ending in the down position. But that stitch....

Dreamy # 03!

what is with the kids and the beanies these days?

A little like the end result. We are discussing making these 3/4 sleeved, and he wants more of these shirts.

He has promised not to make any sudden movements while wearing this.

Happy birthday, Blondini!

Refashion Handbook , Little Fixes reviews

I love the Seattle Public Library. They buy books for me and keep them until I need them.

I have been meaning to read this book, as it sounds like my sort of book: take stuff apart and make new stuff out of it.

Beth Huntington blogs at https://chicenvelopements.wordpress.com/tutorials/. She was not the first Renegade Seamstress (love the stuff here). It's hard to give yourself a nickname and make it stick in the blogoverse. 

She is very successful at it, and her book has a lot going for it. She's like a cheerleader who wants you to see the good in the cast offs. Unlike a lot of refashioners, she's a thrift shopper first, looking for good material and potential. 

She is the first to admit that her methods are probably not seamstress level. She doesn't finish many interior seams except with Fray Check, there's no concerns about mixing your DCO and your machine wash items in one outfit, and she plays fast and loose with marking and measuring. Her knits frighten me (the Wild Life Skirt elastic waistline measurements confused me; did she just cut this too narrow to go over your hips? Maybe she has skinny hips. Ah, shaddup picky brain!).

The inside back cover of the book has a list of other publications, and one should be the companion volume:

Little-Fixes- by Disney Powless

Do not be fooled by the adorable children. There are some amazing projects in this one for dealing with knits, and some great finishing techniques.

I can't believe I haven't written about this book; I stumbled on it this summer. I would like to pretend I invented a lot of tech for t's, but I'm just doing what any good mom would do: saving stuff. And Little Fixes is just a really good compendium of how-to's and why not's. If you're going to start cutting up tshirts, this is the how to book to end up with something that looks good and will stand up to some washings.

I made this big so you could kinda read it. "Be sure the design is facing outward".

I do have to give Ms Huntington some major props for finding the good in the less than interesting. Her taste isn't mine, but she is brave and did some righteous saves.  And her suggestion to put a padlock on the good scissors is going into action tomorrow morning.

http://www.amazon.com/Refashion-Handbook-Refit-Redesign-Remake/

More book reviews in following weeks! If you've read a good one lately (sewing that is), pile on here. 

T Shirt Rebuilds

I've been rebuilding/remodeling a lot of t-shirts; I almost never sew knits from scratch. 

I cut them down, I rearrange the parts, I cut out the stuff I like and sew it onto something that fits. And sometimes, I take it apart again.

This is the second shirt for this dragon and there will be a third

I do these shirts in batches. Which means that I've been sitting on a couple of these for awhile.

                       This is the standard remodel. The order of work is important.

 Shorten the shirt (fold up, pin, sew, THEN trim excess)

Fold up hem to taste

Stitch with wide overlocking sort of stitch

Trim off excess (try to keep excess in a loop)

 Bottom excess will be the new neck band (sew new collar line, stay tape the back neckline, THEN trim old collar off. Unless you like a reaaaaaallllly wide collar)(then fold over and stitch in the ditch from the front) (then trim it)

The bits so far

keep old seam tape (unpick its stitching)

old fabric from bottom is sewn around old collar for new collar

super narrow zig zag  stitch for stretch

1/4"/ 1 cm seam allowance

Join ends and sew together, then stitch over for continuous loop o neckfacing

NOW you can cut off the old collar

If you like a wide neckline for your shirt, you can cut off the old collar first. Believe me, it will grow very wide once you start cutting into that knit.

I kept the old seam tape out of the new seam...

and then it's sewn onto the back collar with a straight stitch

You can leave the seam tape out of it, but the new collar is going to be much wider than the old one. Which may be what you want.

Fold over and sew over seam allowance for new collar

Tiny zig zag in the ditch

NOW you can cut off the extra on the new collar

Sleeves are too long and too narrow at hem. No, I'm not retaking this photo. I look better blurry.

New Hem point

Match the hem distance marks sleeve to sleeve

Folded up and overlocked stitch

Second hem! Matching at top of shoulder seam

Better. I am out of focus all the time.

 If it's too broad or sagging off the shoulders, fold up on sleeve seam and sew a new seam at the cap. 

Bringing the sleeve cap up a 1/4/1cm - ish

The seam starts halfway up the sleeve, tapers out and tapers back on the other side, same distance down

And I am not taking any more photos of my blurry self today.

I mean, this bookstore is now closed.