Sometimes you just need instant gratification!

There really is nothing closer to instant gratification in garment sewing than sewing up some summer tees!

I love the ease and the fit of Jen Stern The Tee pattern. Yes, it has a couple more pieces than a traditional Tee shirt but the fit is amazing and it is super easy to sew assembly line style plus I can sew it all on my serger.
I have a previous blog post about all the different necklines in this post from 2016.

I made several variations by modifying the neckline. Some of these variations are in the Beyond the Boatneck workbook from Jen Stern and some are of my own making.

One change in construction that I now do on all of my tees from this pattern is to make the center upper front piece with a facing. I find that this gives a nicer edge and the quality of the tee holds up better in the long run. Jen does give directions for a full facing but I just like to do the very front piece and then treat is as a single piece in the rest of the construction. This means that the back neckline is a simple turn and coverstitch  or topstictch and the front has the facing.

These first 2 Tee's, the multi-color butterfly featherweight cotton and the red cotton jersey one from the last post both have the original neckline.

This has the original boatneck neckline. You can see below how the CF piece is faced and then treated as one piece.

This purple bamboo knit has a soft V neck that is very flattering and comfortable in the hot summer weather and is a perfect companion to the summery A-line stretch cotton skirt I made earlier this spring.

 Here is another variation in the multi-color butterfly featherweight cotton. This time I completely eliminated the center front piece to make a tank top! I did re-shape the side front pieces to be a more flattering fit on me. I curved them in a little bit and widened them at the top so they easily cover my bra straps.

The tank top version of the Tee. I still used a partial facing technique, this time just on the side front pieces. You can see this in the photo below.

This last Tee did take a little longer to make just because it is a lovely silk knit with a stretch lace overlay that is part of a work wardrobe collection I am in the middle of making.
The neck line on this is a drape neck that I drafted myself and have used in the past. I used only the lace for the draped neck part and self faced it to give it some weight to correctly drape. The sleeves are modified into a wing sleeve and that is single layer lace with raw edges. The lace and the silk knit were treated as one for the side fronts and upper back and at the upper front and back seams. For the lower body the lace and silk knit is kept separate so that they can swish independently.

silk knit tee with gold stretch lace overlay

Close up of the details. top photo shows the faced lace draped neck portion, bottom left shows the un-hemmed sleeve shape and the bottom right shows how both layers treated as one for the beck neckline.
The photo below shows how I kept the body portion of the lace and silk knit separate.

One of the reasons that I really love this pattern is that I was able to modify it so that the lower front is a little bit on the swingy side while keeping the shoulder and bust area fitted nicely.. This really means that I can grab this shirt and always feel comfortable even on days that my pancreas is misbehaving and causing me to have a bloated abdomen. On the bad days it can increase my measurement by almost 2 inches!

Do you have a favorite or TNT tee shirt pattern?

Happy Sewing!!

The princess turned 4 this weekend! We celebrated with a beach party :)
I cant believe my grand-baby is getting so big!

New projects and that @%$#** serger!

I was able to get into my sewing room for a good block of time this week.

I had Thursday and Friday off from work and since my leg is 'on rest' from the barn I decided to spend half my time off in the sewing room and the other half outside getting the pots ready for spring planting.

I decided to pull a couple knits from my stash and sew up some new tops. I am in desperate need of some nice business casual wear that can double up with a good pair of jeans. Using knits lets me pack things better for work travel too.

cowl neck line, flutter sleeves with a gusset side.
I sewed clear elastic at the shoulders and in the sides for support of the seams. This slinky is pretty heavy .
It is very flattering on!



flutter sleeves



sleeve flutter folded back to see side gusset

I cut out both tops and got started on the first. I had to sew one and then the other because I needed to change the serger threads between the two. Well somewhere about part way with the first the serger started acting up. It happened about the time I tried to switch over to a rolled hem. That obviously was not working out, so I switched back to a regular stitch and after about re threading the upper looper about 20 times decided that enough was enough. Something is definitely hinky with the tension disc of the upper looper.

I hate running into issues when I am on such a good roll! That darn serger had me so frustrated that I wanted to kick it and cry at the same time! The darn thing is at the shop now... hopefully it is only a minor problem and that it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg to get fixed. They are supposed to call with an estimate in a couple of days.

The first top is done except for the hem. I will wait for the serger to be returned before moving forward with the finish. I don't mind too much because the top is a nice weight slinky and it will be good for it to rest and hang out for a bit before I actually hem it.

The second top is a lighter weight slinky knit and I will just wait for the serger to come back to do that project as well.

In the meantime, I whipped up an e-reader cover for my e-reader. Or as I affectionately call it, My Book. It came with a bulky zipper cover that I find too big for my travel and have just been sliding the naked book into my purse. Probably not a good thing to do to it. So I used from stash fabric and made a cover. The outer fabric has a heavy weight interfacing and a layer of fusible batting. The lining did have interfacing at first but I re cut it without because I thought it made it a little too bulky.

I made a flap to close it with a simple piece of sew in Velcro. Super cute, somewhat easy to make and now my book is protected.

E-reader cover

 nice snug fit with a bit of protection without being too bulky

I say somewhat easy to make because I decided to do a bag lining which required me to sew around the top and I found out that my new sewing machine has a big free arm. Certainly would not be able to sew a child's sleeve hem or cuff with it! Well, never to worry! I pulled the dust jacket off my trusty old Necchi and got the job done :)