I went shopping, which I thought would be mostly window shopping, but I ended up purchasing some skinny jeans and a knit shirt. The shirt fit well, but after a bit of soul searching and price tag gazing, I decided to take it back. I mean…I can make that for much, much, much less. *sigh* Such is the life of the seamstress. We won’t pay good money for things we can easily make ourselves.
Thusly, my two shirts were born out of my seamstressy plight. I actually used the RTW shirt I had purchased to make a template. I did have some patterns that would have worked, too, but it was there. It is a super simple one-whole-piece-for-each-side pattern. I just really liked the length, which wasn’t too long and blousey, which just makes you look pregnant.
First is the white one, made with a nice featherweight knit. It is super comfy and I embellished the front to make it all fancy. I used four strips of fabric at 3″ wide and about 12 inches long. I ruffled them up and placed them on the shirt. I sewed them on with a straight stitch (one at a time) and then I sewed a few buttons from my vast “heirloom” button stash in the flowers. Then I wore it to work the next day, since I am all about instant gratification.
Next, is my scraptastic version. Seriously, I had to sew pieces of fabric together to get it finished. A good use of scraps, though! This took me the longest since I had to piece all the fabrics together to get them to work. I exposed all of the piecing seams just to give a bit of visual interest. They won’t unravel, as this is a knit.One of the color blocked sides is made up of 3 pieces I had to sew together. Cute, right? Yes, more of the teal-ish fabric. Yes, I do like it very much.
Then we have some t-shirts for Kailan. They didn’t turn out absolutely fantastic, but he loves them and that is what is important. I used a long sleeve pattern to make them and had to make a few adjustments en route. They aren’t the best sleeves in the world, but he is a 6 year old boy so I doubt he cares. As you can see…excitement! He also has almost a full mouth of teeth here, which it has since broken through and is on the way down. 🙂
I used the novelty fabric for the sleeves and a plain solid or strip for the body. I didn’t want them looking like jammies.
The fabrics are a mixture of regular cotton knit, cotton-lycra knit, rib knit and french terry. Just a mish mash, and I really was just trying to match colors. The first top is froggies with a really dark green, next is vroom, vroom cars with a stripe, next is an animal print with orange french terry, and lastly is an outback tours pattern with a cotton lycra knit. He has worn one each day after I made them.
That’s all for now!
I love how you so casually say…”That’s all for now!” That is like a month’s worth of sewing for me! I really like your scraptastic top too…you inspire me, girl.
I am jealous of all of your productivity! One of these days I will back to my poor neglected sewing machine. Great shirts!
Pretty ruffles, I like the button accent you used too. Scraptastic, that’s just an awesome word to use. I think those scraps came together nicely. 🙂 I like Kai’s shirts too. Using the novelty fabric as accents for the sleeves and collars makes for a cute design.
LOVE LOVE LOVE that white shirt! Could you teach me (or my mom!) how to do that? I have been looking and looking at the embellishment aisle at JoAnn and would love to know what to do with it all! 🙂
You are so creative. The combination of fabrics in the T shirts look great. It will be interesting to see how they wash and wear with all the different types of knits. And the two shirts for you are both knock outs. I admire your confidence with the whole ruffling thing. I really must get you to explain it to me again soon now that I have a serger and the holidays coming up!!!!!