Green washable wool jersey tee! And a couple of others

Just a quick post this week on a couple of finished t-shirts! 

This project ended up being a little more involved at the start because I wanted to tweak the fit of my sleeve. Plus i needed to draft a new long sleeve. It is amazing to me that I am still trying to rebuild my wardrobe after losing all that weight last winter. 

Here are 3 shirts and I decided to try out a new neckline. I love my got to scoop but thought I could use some variety. SO I picked up my design ruler and drafted this nice soft V neck. Loving it!!

This t-shirt has gone through a ton of iterations over the last year. From making it almost 6 inches smaller in circumference, to tweaking the bust dart placement, the slope of the shoulders and now the sleeves, oh and the length as well. SO many tweaks and now I finally feel like I have it in the perfect place!!

I wanted it in the perfect place before i used my seriously expensive washable wool green jersey knit! I love this knit and i love wearing wool knit. It just keeps you so comfy and just seems to regulate the temp perfectly, never seem to get too hot or too cold. When you have a body like mine that doesn’t always work the best at regulating its own temps, it is so nice to wear.

So back to the t-shirts. With the all the body parts of the tee perfected the last thing i had to work on was the sleeves. To be perfectly honest I could have kept them as is and no one would have noticed. But i wanted to make it better, so I did. 

The printed short sleeve tee was to test the sleeve changes. This cotton jersey knit is from my stash and I don’t really recall where or when I purchased it. However, I know it is at least 5 years old and possibly quite older. (Dating method from my moves!)

The black cotton/poly jersey knit made up the second tester to check out the draft of the long sleeve. Success! This fabric washes and sews wonderfully and i purchased it within the last year or two for some ridiculously inexpensive price from The Textile Discount Outlet Warehouse in Chicago,I think it was like $3.99 a yard. 

The final version, and the one I have been working towards finally making is this wonderful green washable wool jersey knit that i bought several years ago from Fabrications in Richland, MI. I am so glad that I had not made up this tee before I lost all that weight. I would hav been so mad!!

I really like this neckline and the band finish that I did for it. I tried a couple methods for finishing the V and this one, while not the easiest, is definitely the smoothest and best looking in my book! 

I should have taken in progress pictures to better explain. Basically, I use a small piece of fusible stabilizer/interfacing at the ‘V’. Stay stitch at a 1.6 mm length for about 3/8 of an inch on either side of the V and pivoting exactly at the V. Then I clip to the point. (The clipping part is always a little scary)

For the band itself I cut a crosswise strip 1 3/8 inch to 1 3/4 inch wide, depending on how wide I want the finished band to be, press this wrong sides together. I then take this band and place it against the right side of my neckline and serge it on. While serging,  I every so slightly stretch the band so that it has a snug fit, Making sure to fold the opposite side of the neckline away from the serger knife and needles. When I get back to the V i very carefully stop serging just prior to the start part. I then lay the end of the band under the start of the band and finish it up on the sewing machine. I press the seam towards the body of the tee and then top stitch with a narrow zig zag or use the cover stitch to go around the neckline.

Comes out great everytime! If anyone wants more info let me know and I can make a sample and pics!!

I used some fun labels on these tops. For the print and the black tee I it the labels on the hemline. The Green tee has one on the neckline- Finished just in time! Just in time for me to wear it of course!!

This week I am also working on my muslin of my new princess line jacket. I started with the base pattern from Susan Khalje- The French Jacket. I will use it as my new French jacket pattern. In the mean time I am planning to use this lovely blue wool and fun lining, buttons and somehow this giant trim. This is muslin number 2 and the blue wool will hopefully be my wearable mockup! 

Happy Sewing!!

PS- enjoy this funny shot of little dog trying to get my attention while I was reading! 

Another comfy Closet Core lounge set!

As I mentioned in my last blog posts, i had another set of comfy clothes cut out and ready to go. I wanted to sew the Mile End sweatshirt and Plateau joggers up in other fabrics because I wanted to see how they fit with different knits and play with some cool fabric.

Let’s start with the fun one! The Mile End sweatshirt made up in this great novelty green knit that I purchased in NYC in 2017 from Elegant Fabrics on W 36th street.

I made no fit changes at all. I really like the boxy slightly cropped silhouette of this top. The shape along with the details make it feel a little more modern and stylish and less like a plain old sweatshirt. 

This time I made up view A but added the kangaroo pocket. I really love a good pocket. I can stash all kinds of good things in there if needed! Phone, tissues, candy, dog treats, hand sanitizer! LOL!! Plus I really like the look of it.

I also cut the main fabric on varying grain lines. Some I cut crosswise and some I cut lengthwise. This was for 2 reasons. The lengthwise grain has a lot of stretch and i wanted to control some of that stretchiness. The second was for aesthetically pleasing rotation of the ribs that have a predominate look of stripes. 

The neckline, sleeve cuffs, hem band and pocket were all made out of this very soft and very black ribbing. This is the kind of ribbing that is 20 inches wide but in a tube and i had a remnant piece left over from another project. I had just enough to complete this project! I have no idea where I purchased this ribbing… or when. I think, maybe, on Etsy. Nope just checked my history there so, somewhere else online at some point in time! 

Just like in the last one I interfaced the pocket openings and the shoulder seams only.

Constructions was done mostly on the serger, except for attaching the pocket and the shoulder seams.

Hems were done with the ribbing bands which makes it so nice and easy. One thing to note, with the ribbing I did not use the recommended lengths from the pattern instructions. The ribbing is like crazy stretchy almost 75% so I started with subtracting 25% off the length and then pinned it on place on the garment and made it even shorter after that. The waist band ended up being almost 8 inches shorter than the length I used on the previous top!

Totally worth taking the time otherwise the ribbing would be all wavy and look funny and then I would have been very disappointed.

This version of the Plateau joggers was made with black ponte knit from my stash. A much more stable knit then the soft French terry in the previous pair. Due to the more stable knit you can certainly see where my fitting flaws are, particularly in the back! Front looks great!

Like most of us I have a funny body. When I stand straight and you view me from the side my calf’s stick out quite far. In fact if you place a vertical line my calf’s stick out just as far as my tush! Which gives me drag lines on the side and back of my legs. Plus i have ‘fleshy’ inner upper thighs. So be warned of the upcoming backside photos!! They look quite different from the same exact pants in the same size cut from a different fabric in the previous version!

This time I made the view with the cuff instead of the elastic and I made them 1 inch longer.

For the waist band drawstring I used buttonholes in green thread and a ribbon from my stash. (I got this idea from one of my granddaughters pants that have a fun ribbon drawstring)

One of the things I really like about these pants is the side pocket construction! And the lack of a side seam at the top. 

The only change I will definitely make next time is to deepen the pockets. They are good I just would prefer them slightly deeper. Maybe a 3/8 to 1/2 an inch. 

The back pockets have a great size and placement.

Black is so hard to photograph and apparently shows every single dog hair especially when I lightened up the photos for details! Oh well, that’s life.

These pants are really comfortable and this is definitely my new TNT jogger pants pattern. I may or may not play around with shifting the calf back. I have tried many things over the years and have found that I either need to make my pants wide legged so they hang from my butt down straight and skim the calves, make bell bottoms so there is no pull from the calves or make the pants super tight, like leggings, so there is no place for wrinkles. Other than that there are wrinkles. I have even tried changing how I stand !! LOL!!! If I stand so my calves are more under my body then all the wrinkles go away but then I am in danger of falling over. Hah!! The things us sewers do to get rid of the wrinkles!

Happy sewing!!

PS- enjoy a real life moment of me in my new top, snuggled with The Princess and the little dog. :)

Mini Lounge Collection! Keeping Cozy this long winter - Part 2

I am back with part 2 on my mini cozy, comfy collection! This blog post I will tell you about the two tops that I made to go with the matching jogger and hoodie.

Boat Neck Tee

Easy Fit and Sew Tank

The tank top is from Jen Stern and is the Easy fit and sew tank top, view A. This tank has a great size range from 2XS to 5XL Bust from 34” to 58” and hip from 36” to 60”. 

The boat neck short sleeve tee is self drafted and the boat neck portion was developed from a Sarah Veblen zoom class on boat necks. Size range- just me!

The Jen Stern tank is my TNT tank top pattern. I have made a couple changes to the pattern over time. Little tweaks here and there. The 2 biggest changes were to lower the underarm 3/8 inch with a little tweak to the back armhole shape and adding about 3/8 inch across the width in the back at the level of mid armhole. I did this because on the first ones my bra strap was peeking out  and i just needed a smidge more fabric. I like that the neckline and armholes are finished with a band. My favorite method of finishing and the neckline is such a nice U shape. Very flattering on me. 

For this specific tank, I had to piece the back together. I originally was planning to make a long sleeved knit t-shirt but since I changed the design to short sleeves, I was blue to eek out both tops but had to do a smidge of piecing. I think it looks very intentional and could be fun for a color blocked version or maybe make that top part out of a fun mesh knit.

The Tee shirt is my self drafted tee with a boat neck that I drafted after taking a zoom class with Sarah Veblen. I never thought that a real boat neck would look good on me and it was a fun exercise last year to develop this neckline on my master knit bodice pattern.

The Fabric is a limeade solid knit is an Oeko-Tex Viscose/Spandex 4 way knit jersey. It is quite a nice knit that feels soft but substantial. It washed and dried nicely and was very easy to sew.

The only interfacings/stabilizers that I used in both tops was to stabilize the very narrow shoulder seams of both tops with SewkeysE Extremely fine fusible 1/2” woven stay tape. 

No other notions except for more fun Kylie and the Machine labels were used.

The construction was done on both the sewing machine and the serger. The shoulder seams were done on the sewing machine with a straight stitch and the side seams, sleeve insertion on the tee and band applications on the tank were done with a 4 thread serger.

To finish the neckline and sleeve hem on the tee I used a serpentine stitch. Very pretty and a little bit of stretch to accommodate the fabric. The hem was done with just a straight stitch with a lowered presser foot pressure to keep the fabric from slipping.

Boat neck Tee details

For the hem finish on the tank I tried something new. I did a blind hem stitch on the serger using a blind hem foot. I am not sure if it was done correctly but I like the outcome! It  gives the tank the effect of having a banded hem finish without the work of attaching a band. A technique to keep in mind for future makes. 

Tank top details

These two tops were quick and easy to make, even with trying a new hem method on the tank. I like taking the time now and then to try a new method, you never know when you will learn a new and better way. 

Happy Sewing!! 

We enjoyed a snow day in Chicago this week. Me, my daughter,  the Princess and the mini-princess all put on the snow gear went to the local park and played in the snow! It was just so much fun!!! I felt like a kid again making snow angels and playing in the snow :)