A wide range of Tees & Tanks & various experiments

After a crazy move and 3 months of semi nomadic living, the sewing room was up and ready and....overwhelm!  Where to start?  I kicked it off with a simple tee binge. 

 

Patterns 4 Pirates tulip tee - tulip in front 

My friend who was pregnant is now breastfeeding so I thought I would make this for her. I actually think this top is much nicer with the tulip in front rather than in the back. In the back it pulled funny but these are lovely!

Glacial tee 

Oops I forgot to check the neck binding and it is too floppy. I think in future I will make it skinnier as well. This is fine, but the binding bothers me a lot so it might get passed on.  (Done- and my friend LOVES it.)

 

Merlo tee in very very sticky viscose 

Don't rock climb and then sew? I decided to do up this top in a single colour because I thought the tee would be amazing and I really just didn't like the way any of my scraps matched up.  But this very drapey heavy viscose is a pain to sew and caught on my freshly post rock climbing fingers and was not fun.  I used some double sided sticky iron on tape for the hem which saved my sanity, and made coverstitching very pleasant!  However, the bands on the sleeves were ridiculous, turning it into a weirdly elbow length top, so I eventually sucked it up and removed the middle bits and put the bands back on. I will see if a less drapey fabric is tighter and shorter - it's nice to have a lot of ways to colourblock, but also overwhelming. 

Another feature of this fabric I've noticed when wearing is that I feel like it would be better suited to a curvier person.  Or this fabric really needs to be tight.  I might wear it more in the later spring and summer with a sports bra but there's a high chance it will be flying to a new home.  One of my best friends has moved to Sweden and her beach-friendly wardrobe needs some upgrades, which of course I'm happy to help provide! 

Elbe Botany with ruffle 

This is a really lovely silk? Wool? blend with metal bits.  Apparently designer deadstock, from Fabric Godmother.  I wanted to hurry and make something with it before I decided it was Too Special to Touch.  This was a great match for the fabric, but the pattern is not clear that you need to cut a lot of bias tape, and so I ended up needing to scrounge that from scraps.  Not optimal, and left me with very narrow bindings.  Overall the top is great despite that, but it's very airy so I might not be taking it on my upcoming Europe trip as planned.  

Sew Liberated Strata tee in velvet 

I had a leftover piece of velvet bothering me and realised it would be a great match for the drape of the Strata tee pattern.  I didn't love the Strata in a lightweight fabric - I think it is better matched to something heavier with good drape.  Whipped this up for a friend who I thought might be cheered by something new.  The velvet was pretty painful especially around the neck binding, but the results are perfect.  

Jalie top bias cut 

Experimenting with the Jalie to see whether I could use it for woven fabrics by turning it on the bias.  The answer is sort of yes.  It fits well, but I'm not entirely happy with the fit at the armhole.  I might try lowering the armhole by 1" and see if that suits me more.  I want to eventually maybe use this for a scrap of very fancy designer silk, but I think more editions are necessary before I commit.  I have not yet adjusted my pattern pieces, but on this top each time I make it I remove about 2" from the back hem, making it less curved and also less droopy fabric catching on my bum.  

Update on this one: wore it on my trip and it is a win. The armhole doesn't bother me at all, and being on the bias it just moves with my curves.  I feel confident enough not to do more practice versions - I will be making it in the silk next. 

 

Greenstyle Stride tights x 2 and adventures with sports knits...

 My friend Tessa has been in love with her Greenstyle stride tights for long enough that I thought I should try out the pattern.  I have a lot of leggings, but the ones I've made have been Megan Nielsen Virginia, which I have made many times, but apparently been silent about as no way was this leather pair my first rodeo, and Jalie Clara.  And honestly the secondhand shops keep providing me with such great Lululemon that it's hard to keep in mind my goal of increasing the handmade ratio in my wardrobe.  

So I had a look over this pattern.  Went with size D as I thought a bit smaller would be the better choice. Tessa told me they are true to size.

I have these sports knits I got awhile ago, the patterned fabrics are from Mood, and the contrast are from a shop in the States, but I'm not sure where.  Something with expensive shipping, and I think they are Repreve which is a recycled nylon blend with old PET bottles in it.  

I made the pocket side version, medium rise, capri length for my first attempt.  I initially froze when I realised the yellow is kind of transparent, but decided it's not really anywhere important enough to double layer it.  While sewing these tights my coverstitch machine was still behaving relatively well, though it's gone to the dark side since then.  It's very annoying when a machine you already don't like stops working well.  

Putting these together was quite fun and satisfying once I got past the finicky pocket finishing, but I noticed right away as I sewed the curved panels that the two fabrics went through the feed dogs at VERY different ratios.  I think on one side I had an offset of about 2 inches when I finished, and I was not pulling at the fabrics.  On the other side, I had less. I followed the instructions regarding order of sewing and the backs matched up perfectly.  

I tried them on and discovered that I had the worst leg twist known to man.  They were twisting about 100 degrees, and both in the same direction (I think the twist is to the right).  One leg (probably the one with that big offset) was super skewed and very loose at the hem.  I engineered a fix by overlocking off the hem unevenly (a big chunk of pink and not much yellow) to bring it slightly back out of skew.  This was like a 2" or wider chunk.  It still is very obvious when they are on the floor, and the hems are a bit uneven because of that fabric twist.  However once on my body they are ok.  

 

And once on my body I noticed that the pockets are absurdly low.  They like, aren't within reach of my hands.  The pockets should be right where the side piece widens (according to Lululemon anyway) - so functionally they start where they should end.  Having said this, I took these for a trial run to work in Thames, and wore them on a 12km adventure trail run and I had my phone in that pocket, and it was snug in there the entire time.  So they still work fine. 

I went on with the prettier fabric and this time did the high waist and the crop length, without the pockets.

I changed the order I sewed things in to see if it would fix leg twist - sewing both side seams the same side up.  I also didn't sew the backs together right away, and the result is that they don't line up as well.  Seems that in this case you are *well served* by actually following the instructions!  Imagine!  

The leg twist is slightly less and I didn't need to do any crazy fixes this time.  It's not gone by any means.  Unfortunately, the high waist is totally ridiculous.  I have no waist.  The midrise was high waisted on me.  I should have known better.  So this waistband is at my ribs and it's very tight, I will have to do something about it but I thought I'd wear them a few times first to figure it out.  

 

Both of these pairs of tights are a little bit loose right at the top of the crotch, which is the most important spot for them to be snug.  This makes me think I need to tighten up that area - it's much worse on the black pair so I will almost certainly have to deal with the waist and then see about adjusting them further to improve the fit.  I believe the Jalie Clara were better in this area because of their gusset, so next time I feel like making leggings I might do those again.

 

 This experience has left me very wary of sewing with sports knits.  I didn't expect them to be any different from regular knits, but they are far more slippery and finicky. My experience was not improved because at the same time, I decided to quickly sew a Patterns for Pirates basic tank top with the super curved hem to match my new sportswear.  (Beware of "quick sews?")

 Putting the tank together was easy but then I went to the coverstitch all planning to hem it in one go, without ironing it in place or pinning or any prep, and that was such a bad coverstitch hem that I had to undo it.  I tried to redo the hem, but it's too curved, and actually I just killed it and had to CUT OFF the entire hem and have now zig zagged it which is way uncool. So the PTSD regarding these sports knits is real, but is kind of my fault for thinking I didn't need to prep.  

I don't think the leg twist is a fault of the legging pattern.  I don't think I cut my pieces out off grain.  I think it happens because of that curve across the butt with that stretchy fabric having variable stretch as it crosses the grain.  The way I think you could try to fix it is by basting the pieces together with a sewing machine first, using an exceptionally wide stitch, and going from the hems up.  I'm not tempted to make more of these to see, and although it's frustrating to have resulting clothes that feel "imperfect" they definitely look good on, I've already gotten compliments!  And they work.  Getting away from that RTW perfect mindset is such an ongoing struggle.