Search Results for: a geometric art print teeshirt

A geometric art print teeshirt

Isn’t it funny how the most boring, basic garments somehow end up being the ones we wear the most? Take this top – it was really only meant to be a wearable muslin to test out a new teeshirt draft I was working on last Fall. I wasn’t even planning on even taking finished garment photos of it, as it was a rough pattern (no seam allowances or extraneous notches for my private patterns!) and I just grabbed some fabric out of a bag ready for donation and sewed it all together without much thought.

And it’s ended up being something I wear all the time. Like, I have to make mental notes to make sure I don’t wear it twice in the same week!

Long time readers may actually recall that I’d used this fabric for a long sleeved teeshirt a few years ago. Well, that particular top has since gone off to the charity shop because the neckline was just too low and wide for me to wear more than occasionally, and I hadn’t even worn it enough for the black and orange print to start doing their cool crackle/fading thing! The fabric was originally from Mood via Kollabora, so it’s probably long gone, but everything I disliked about it then I actually really like in this teeshirt. Funny, eh?

Sewing with Soft shell

I’ve seen several references to soft shell recently and I thought it might be worth delving a little deeper into this fabric since I’m guessing many of you may not be familiar with it…

What is Soft shell?
Not to be confused with that thin polyester stuff that made up “shell suits” in the 1980s, “soft shell” is a fabric that’s comprised of a densely woven exterior side with a brushed fleecey reverse. It’s ideal for applications like jackets because the exterior blocks the wind and is largely rain resistant, too, while the fleece interior is comfortable and warm against the skin without need for a lining, either.

A monochrome turtleneck

I’ve been absolutely swamped with work recently (and when you’re self-employed this is no bad thing!) but I still managed to squeeze in a little Me Sewing on the side. I’m a big believer in sewing up a “quick knit top” when you need a mojo boost, and this top probably took an hour in total, from tracing to cutting to sewing to wearing, split into several ten minute segments snatched here and there – the busy woman’s way to getting stuff sewn!

Two quick tops

Not everything I made while I was ill was an involved as my navy Harriet jacket – I made quite a few small and quick projects, too, just to boost my mood. I wanted to show you two different quick tops today – it didn’t really feel like I had enough to say about either to warrant separate posts, but I wanted to document them just the same.

Seamwork Akita in Japanese floral

My friend Alex brought me back a ton of fabrics fro Tomato in Tokyo (which you’ll be seeing more of, I’m certain!), but this narrow, textured floral shrunk a TON in the wash and was narrow to begin with, so afterwards it was very narrow indeed. So I pulled out the Seamwork Akita blouse pattern since it only needs a narrow, non-directional print fabric because it’s just one pattern piece (no shoulder seams). In the end, the pattern piece touched both selvedges and I had to trim off some of the sleeve depth to fit it in!

I haven’t seen this pattern made up much, but I was disappointed in the fit – this runs HUGE, even for an over-the-head top (in contrast, the woven, over-the-head Sorbetto pattern fits much closer). In hindsight, I think I could’ve made the absolute smallest size and still be swimming in it (and no, no printing errors!). I chopped off about 6 inches in length, too, and it’s still on the long side.

But the worst bit is that the bust point is ridiculously low, which just looks bad. Luckily, it gets lost in such a busy print, but it’s still disappointing.

By the time I tried it on and realised it was massive, I didn’t have any bias fabric left to do the neckline facing, so instead I pulled out some silk charmeuse bias strips I had squirrelled away and used those to finish off the neckline in my preferred way. This is actually my favourite part of this top!

I’ve worn it with layers on top because I like the colours, but I’m glad I didn’t make it in an expensive silk like I was planning! The other Seamwork patterns I’ve made have been true to size, so I’m not sure what happened here…

Sweaty Betty striped tech tee

I had some weird, small offcuts of tech fabrics from my Sweaty Betty-working friend, one of which was this teal, black, and grey striped, slubby wicking teeshirt material. I cycle commute in street clothes that I wear at work all day (unless it’s pouring, in which case I change into dry clothes at the office) and I like to have a base layer which dries quickly. I never get that sweaty on my ride, but when I was ill it felt a bit harder than it does normally, so tech tees were useful.

A Week in a Day

I’ve been a bad blogger this week. I’ve been doing lots (as you’ll soon see), but working every weekend for the past three, plus the weeks in between, and some out-of-town trips have all really sapped my enthusiasm to write! So I’m taking the lazy option out and catching you all up with a little roundup – a week’s worth of posts in a day…

Like the Wind workshop

Cult running magazine Like the Wind approached me a few months ago to ask if I’d like to run a “sew your own leggings workshop” at the week-long popup they were throwing together at the end of October. I’d known one half of the husband-and-wife team that run the magazine, but I’d never met Julie before this. Once I found out that she not only owns her own overlocker, but bought it when she sewed her own wedding dress with it(!), I knew we’d get along just fine.

We had five runners who’d only done a small amount of sewing before, but had never touched an overlocker before, and certainly not a coverstitch either! They each picked their own fabric from FunkFabrics’ range, and walked home in some very stylish leggings at the end of the afternoon!

Georgina picked a “Gotham” print, so of course she just had to pose with the Batman art in the gallery!

And here’s the finished set! I saw quite a few little “omg I’m so happy in my leggings” dances at the end, which really reminds me why I love teaching so much. Lucy posted a great writeup of the street art tour and my class, too.

There may be another Like the Wind workshop in the new year if we can work out the logistics, but there will definitely be more up at the Thriftystitcher studio in January and February, to be announced very soon! The classes are very similar, so if you’re a runner you can come learn at Thriftystitcher, or non-runners vice-versa at Like the Wind.

But I was so jealous of all their finished leggings that I treated myself to some Funkifabrics lycra this week (it was difficult, but I settled on this geometric aqua number in the end, because it reminded me of a Lamb album cover!).

Random sweatshirt sewing

When I was pulling out supplies to bring along to the workshop, I came across pieces for this sweatshirt that I’d cut out in February when I was trying to deplete random bits of leftover sweatshirting that was taking up too much room in my little sewing cave. The lavender “sacrificial sweatshirt” came out of that same cull, but for some reason I never quite got around to sewing this blue one together at the time.