Tuesday, June 25, 2013

One yard, two tops

The day I made my Plain Jane Shorts, I also whipped up a fun variation on Kristin's now-infamous Scoop-neck Tee.  I had a tiny bit of some super soft, taupe-colored bamboo knit fabric (bought locally here), some lovely peach narrow-striped bamboo knit from Michael Levine, and an idea to make a color-block version.
For the pattern, I folded and traced the original pattern where I wanted the color break, adding seam allowances to both newly "cut" pieces.  I serged the seams (I've been using a 4-thread mock-safety stitch since sewing my bathing suits) and used my the coverstitch machine for the hem.  I'm having some beef with my new machine, but I need to talk to the store before assuming it's anything but user-error.
Since the pink portion of the shirt didn't use a lot of fabric, I had *just* enough to manage a second shirt with tiny cap raglan sleeves.  The original pattern is from Burda Style, but I completely removed all the gathering on the sleeves by slashing and reducing (and lots of measuring of arm-scythes!).

The neck and armholes are binding-bound and then top-stitched with a single-needle chain stitch (using my coverstitch machine) to keep it stretchy.  Next time I'd like the arms a tiny bit bigger all-around--I feel like a beefcake in this one!  It sure is comfy, though.
I don't mind having multiple shirts in the same fabric, and I'm seriously pleased with getting two tops out of a single yard.  Woohoo!
Photo-bombed by my little helper.  Next time: use the iron and buy a t-shirt bra.  Sheesh!


7 comments:

  1. Great job...love your tshirts

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    1. Thank you! I made another tonight... :)

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  2. Wow Nicole, you do the scary things and make them look gorgeous! T shirts, shorts, trousers! eek!

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    1. Okay, now I feel bad...in the past two days, I made both trousers and a t-shirt ;) Does it help that I've been sewing for over 30 years??

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  3. Curious - why is the tee shirt pattern infamous? What's wrong with it? I missed something!

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    1. Oh my gosh, I didn't mean it negatively! The pattern's been all over the sewing blog circuit, so I guess I should say it's "famous" and not "infamous"! Now I feel terrible! This is why I'm a biologist and not a writer... :)

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    2. Heh :) I was sure confused! (Your outfit looks great, though.)

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