Seaside Tee

Ahhhh, relax... Imagine the end of a sunny day at the beach, walking back across the beach, contemplating a trip home against the traffic... bliss!

But before we go, wasn't I going to show you something?

Yes, turn around.

There's the sea, the sand and the sky.  And a seaside t-shirt by the seashore.

This t-shirt is one I made at least a month ago, along with a couple more that are going to be ditched for just looking awful (poor fabric choices). This one's a keeper, but the fabric is very thin, so while it's a great weight for warm days in the sun, there's no hiding the tum.

The fabric is something I picked up at The Fabric Store earlier this year, and the pattern is the Kirsten Kimono tee (again, as in Day 4 of MMM - it's my go-to t-shirt pattern). I need to think about varying the size depending on the fabric - the weight and drape of the fabric makes a huge difference to how this t-shirt looks. I love how Winny wears this as a looser style, so maybe my next t-shirts will be a size or two bigger!

Easy sewing, but it just can't be jackets and frocks all the time, can it!

Speaking of frocks, I do have a few projects on the go (a stripey dress, as mentioned over at The Monthly Stitch, a loose summery dress in a lime jersey, and a blue and white stripey skirt).  If I can stick with one at a time there should be something to share with you pretty soon.

 See you anon

- Gabrielle x

Top Trio and a Winner

Of course you wouldn't know it from my silence, but I've been participating in Faye's 2013 "Essential Top Sew-a-long".  And I've made a trio of simple tops, two of which are keepers:

The cute little striped top is a Kirsten Kimono Tee, a success here but a fail for me when I first made it (in the same red fabric as shown above - I'm trying really hard to sew from my stash!). My striped fabric is a loose-weave linen jersey; it's a drapey two-way stretch fabric and makes for a completely different and much more relaxed fit to my earlier effort. The shoulder seams and neckline are stabilised with thin, transparent elastic - I forget what it's called but I use it a lot with lightweight knits. Everything else was sewn with a twin needle - side seams and all hem finishes. I learnt the hard way that this sort of fabric stretches out a lot if you subject it to overlocking, so the seams are raw :-).

Late Edit: here's what the stripey top looks like on - already getting loads of wear:

The blue top looks crumpled because it's been sitting in a bag of stuff dedicated to be passed on to the local second hand shop. I did intend for this to be a wardrobe staple as I love the colour and have heaps of this fabric in my stash, but unfortunately I misread the fabric list for the long sleeved pattern (Vogue 8879, view A) and used a two-way rather than a four-way stretch for the blue top. This top fits but feels constricting, and I don't like the waist band on it so it's being passed on to the second-hand shop. With any luck it'll become a wardrobe staple for someone smaller than me.

Lesson learnt, second time around with Vogue 8879 I used a fabric (the red stuff) with four-way stretch.  This time around I left off the stitching at the bottom of the V-neck binding because I suspected the V-neck would turn into a scoop neck if left to its own devices. It does - the strain from the cut-in-one sleeves is enough to pull what looks like a steep V shape into something much rounder when worn.  I lengthened the sleeves by about 9cm, omitted the waist band, and sewed my seams a smidgen narrower. This top looks good on, and even feels loose through the body and shoulders (what a difference the fabric makes!), but I'm not 100% convinced by fitted cut-on sleeves...  I think I would have preferred an extra seam for the sake of having my sleeves on the grain.

So that's the trio, now for the WINNER of my dresses pattern pyramid:

                          it's Dal!

Congratulations Dal - I'll be in touch soon to get your mail details and send those patterns off to you!

Kirsten Kimono Tee

I know t-shirts are dead simple to make, and kimono sleeve t-shirts are synchicated, but my experience with this pattern may nonetheless be useful to someone...

So. I mentioned I was making this Kirsten Kimono Tee in my last post - and here it is:

Pardon the cranky face - this was the best photo.

I sewed this in a Small / Medium (Small on the shoulders and bust, widening to a Medium on waist/hips) but based on my measurements and the sizing chart provided in the instructions included with the pattern I should have used a Large on the waist / hips.

The pattern is a free pdf pattern by Maria Denmark - this looks to be her simplest design; she also designs and sells lots of more complex patterns. If you "buy" this free pattern it gets emailed to you, and you then print out the pattern pieces and instructions, sticky tape the pattern pieces together and trace over your size, adding your own seam allowances.

This tee as I made it is very fitted on the body but has room in the sleeves. I added the little bands to the sleeves and waist hem, but you could also easily lengthen either and finish a deep hem with a twin-needle straight stitch. Even though this is fitted, it's not tight - it's very comfortable. And if I had made the correct size the tee wouldn't be flaunting my belly...

And I mentioned I've drafted my own kimono sleeve t-shirts before - here's the one I was thinking of:

and here's how the sizing measures up between my self-drafted effort and the Kirsten:

Interestingly there isn't much difference in width at the bust / underarm level, but from there the Kirsten stays slim-fitting while my own effort flares out - but the Kirsten would have had a similar body shape to mine (loose below the bust) if I'd used the right size for my measurements. The sleeves are different shapes, and the shoulder shape in the Kirsten tee is also a more natural shape than the squared off shape I used.

This is a super-quick and cute top. It uses only 0.75metres of fabric, the pattern is free and the instructions include plenty of helpful info - if you are new to sewing with knits this might be a good starting point...

Overlocked - V1306 T-shirt

Little Betty made one of these V1306 t-shirts recently (well, about 3 months ago) and it looked so nice on her... the pattern is rated Easy and so I assumed it would be super-quick on the overlocker. Hmmm - bear in mind that she's a quick seamstress and I am not.

My new (old, second hand) overlocker came home with me from the sewing repair shop a couple of weekends ago, along with an instructional DVD. The DVD was boring so I haven't watched much of it, but the overlocker? It's so much more fun than I expected, and the machine (an ancient babylock imagine - looks like the original model) is doing a beautiful job!  All I can do so far is 4-thread seam overlocking, but WOW was I deceiving myself when I said I didn't care what the insides of my garments looked like :^>  I am only equipped for black or white overlocking though... where do you buy the coordinating thread? Is there a good online source?
 

This is not a bog-standard t-shirt, and the neckline details and side gathers mean more effort... but it's a Rebecca Taylor pattern, so those extra details are lovely! I made this in a size M (12-14) which is a bit big and loose, but I like it! Now that I look at the envelope again I can see that when I stopped following the instructions after doing the neckline and side gathers I missed a third detail that would've been cute - the sleeve turnups! Maybe next time.






I wore it on Friday for a scenic jog around Barangaroo and Walsh Bay and it was really comfy and (I think hope) a flattering length.

I have also been making a simple kimono-sleeve red t-shirt with white(that's laziness and my lack of red overlocker thread) overlocked seams. I'm using Maria Denmark's Kirsten kimono sleeve t-shirt pattern, which is a free multisized pattern - I'm very interested to see how it fits compared to my own self-drafted efforts. So far my main impression is tighter LOL! When it's done I'll post pictures alongside some of my own old self-drafted t-shirts; maybe I'll learn something:-).

And I also started a summer-weight long-sleeve t-shirt for Mr Upsewlate - trying to remedy some of the fit issues of the last one but the fittings and adjustments are really irritating.  I think I really need to start all over with a new pattern draft! As this is still a work-in-progress I'll keep the sharing for another day if you don't mind, but at least you know I've been up to a few bits and pieces!

PS Sorry it's been such a long time between posts - I didn't lose my mojo as such, but I haven't had much energy for sewing, blogging etc lately... there seems to be so much to keep track of for school / childcare recently, my job is keeping me ridiculously busy, and my recent fitness efforts are sending me to bed NOTsolate.