FO: Yellow Stripe Boat Neck

This shirt has been on my list to make since the fall. I was having a yellow moment where I really wanted to add more to my wardrobe - I blame current trends and seeing cute things at Target since it's the only store with clothes I go into anymore, lol. I actually bought a skirt from Target because I liked the "Aztec Gold" color do much. Around that same time I found an amazing pair of mustard yellow Clark's flats on Amazon for $36 - a total steal. So I was getting a few pieces, but I needed more to be able to incorporate (*cough* and justify purchasing *cough*) my awesome shoes. I've sworn off most yellows for so long that I did not have anything in my stash. I find that yellow is a color that has to be just right for your skin tone to not look ill on most people. I can't do butter yellow at all, but lemon and mustard are ok. When I came across this yellow stripe shirt in the Target clearance rack (which is kind a light mustard - maybe "Aztec gold?" lol), I liked the color but it was WAY too big and they only had this one size left. Since the original was a size 4X, I knew it had enough fabric to recut into whatever I wanted :) So I bought it with good intentions, but it sat until after Christmas.

Here's a full outfit shot - look at those shoes! Aren't they awesome? Shoes like that deserve to have a shirt made for them. Wanting to wear these shoes more is what made me immediately grab this project after finishing Christmas gifts. So just after moving back to my house, I sewed this up in one evening. I used my hacked Renfrew pattern with a boat neckline (my favorite) and cut the pieces out of the much larger pieces.

I made sure to stripe match where possible - I'm pretty proud of my matched side seams. CHeck out that action!

I also matched at the armhole notches, but it turns out that they were a bit low to be able to really see the matching :/ Next time I will pick a spot higher up the armhole. They do look nice at the two stripes I was able to match though (seen above).

And the obligatory back view. I should also mention that the only area that I did not redo is the sleeve hem. After cutting the original shirt, I wanted to keep as much length as possible, so I just sewed the sleeves up using the original cover stitched hem. No one will ever know that but me though.

I took a close up picture later so you can see the colors better - the yellow stripe is split up by a white strip and a pale pink stripe. Also I did my preferred method of an enclosed neck band for this shirt. Since the fabric has 4 way stretch, I cut the neckband on the cross grain and I really like my little pop of vertical stripes. No one besides me will see that, but it makes me happy.

I do get a slight bit of wrinkling along the neckband, which I've had on my other versions as well, and only on this project did it occur to me why that happens. The boat neckline should just be a 1 to 1 ration on the neckband. I made this about 4 inches shorter than the neckline opening (which I always do on scoop necks and the like), but it seems to pull the neckline tighter than that area needs, thus the wrinkles. I'm not sure if this is across the board or just from my hollow upper chest, but it's definitely something for me to change on the next version. It's not keeping me from enjoying this version though.

So that's my yellow shirt :) Making this perfectly coincides with The Sewcialists theme of Stripes too, which is nice as I never manage to make things for those group challenges. I've worn this shirt at least once a week since finishing it, so it is a clear winner in my wardrobe. Yay for yellow!

Summary:
Fabric: Size 4X boat neck t-shirt from Target - $4.50
Pattern: Renfrew by Sewaholic Patterns with hacked neckline
Notions: thread - free
Time: 2 hours
Total Cost: $4.50

OAL2017: Mint Twig Renfrew

To see Part 1 of this series (my sweater), click here.

To see Part 2 of this series (my skirt), click here.

Here's my final piece for the Outfit Along! Part 3 :) 

After I decided against my newly finished black and white striped Renfrew for the Outfit Along, I had to quickly plan an alternative top to pull the other two pieces together. I pulled out any cut of knit fabric that I thought might coordinate and laid it inside the sweater itself, then wrapped the front pieces over to get an idea of the finished look. I posted 4 options on Instagram and Ravelry, asking opinions on which to choose. In the end I went with the one I thought would go but that I would also want to wear a lot, which technically was the most popular choice of others as well :) Always nice when that happens so I don't look like a jerk, ha ha.

So this is another hacked Renfrew - this is exactly like the black and white stripe Renfrew ended up, I just didn't have to reconfigure things on the fly with this one since I already did all that trial and error with the first one. Hoorah! I measured my black striped Renfrew and transferred the new neckline to my pattern and cut this one out. Easy :) I love easy.

The winning fabric was this cotton interlock from the Doodles line at Joann's. It has occurred to me that this is the most popular fabric in my wardrobe since it's really the only brand I'm loyal to as I love the softness and fun prints as well as the price and availability. This print is called Twig Floral in Mint and it's still available to buy. While this fabric line is technically designed for kid's clothes, I find this fabric really bridges the gap between toddler and adult. The pattern would be cute as a kids dress or onesy or t-shirt, but I think it still looks fine on this 32 year old. Also I adore the color - mint is one of my favorite colors to wear and this fabric is a bit brighter in real life (less pastel).

I deliberately made this shirt a bit longer than normal because I know this fabric tends to shrink up a bit more with time. This is also long enough for me to tuck in without it popping out all the time (a constant problem in this long torso'd life I lead). I actually don't feel it's too long even untucked - in fact I'm wearing this top untucked with my gray Melissa skirt as I type this :) So it can be worn either way and I love that.

And again let's take a moment to appreciate that neckline. No bra in sight! Love it. I did the same neckline finish as the black version and it worked out wonderfully. I just love being able to just sew something without worrying about the fit aspect. Because I had just made up this pattern a few days before, I was able to cut AND sew this top in less than 2 hours. That is record time for me. Gotta love a quick and reliable project that will get worn a lot.

So that's my whole outfit for this year's Outfit Along :) It was lots of fun as usual, and now I have 3 (actually 4, lol) great pieces to wear. Interestingly I just realized that all my pieces this year coordinate with all my pieces from last year's challenge. I guess I'm a bit predictable. Ah well, it makes for a cohesive wardrobe.

I can't wait for next year's Outfit Along to come!

Summary:
Fabric: 1.25 yards Mint Twig Floral Interlock from Joann's - $7.50
Pattern: Renfrew by Sewaholic Patterns
Notions: white thread - $0.50, woolly nylon thread - $0.10
Time: 2 hours
Total Cost: $8.10

FO: Striped Renfrew Hack

Back in my Outfit Along Planning post, I mentioned how I wanted to make a boat neck Lark Tee out of a black and white striped knit in my stash. After my wearble muslin of the Lark turned out to be a looser fit then I originally hoped, I had a choice to make. Do I do more work to that pattern in hopes of eventually getting a shirt I like, or do I decide not to reinvent the wheel and just use a similar pattern that I already know fits me well? Can you tell where I'm going with this? Since I would have to alter the Lark neckline anyway to sit how I like, I might as well just do that same alteration to a well fitting pattern (so said my logic, anyway). So I grabbed my trusty Renfrew pattern and got to work.

This is the Renfrew by Sewaholic patterns, but with an altered neck. I used my standard size 16 top, but I tried drafting a slash neckline by following this tutorial by Heather B on Pattern Review. I understood it in theory, but I when it came time to draft the changes I just couldn't see adding extra ease to the bust and neckline. I have a hollow chest and always have to remove excess fabric from this area, so I decided to just use that ease I would normally have removed and call it good. Yeah... I shouldn't have done that. I did the drafting, spent all the time cutting out and stripe matching my lovely knit here, and sewed the neckline first as I usually do when making knit tops. I could barely get my head in the whole. Whoops! I mean, I could squeeze it in, but the tight side neckline plus how high up it came on my neck made the neckline look so closed up that I felt ridiculous. At this point I had nothing to lose, so I just marked where I wanted the neckline to hit, drew the scoop by hand, added 1/2" seam allowance and chopped off the unfortunate slash neck issue. I measured around my new neck hole (25") and cut out a neckband that was 21" long. I applied the neckband in the usual way (right sides together, lightning bolt stitch 1/2" seam allowance, trim down excess), then instead of the methods I usually go with (from the Renfrew or the Plantain by Deer + Doe) I folded the other side of the band in half and then folded it down into the shirt. I top stitched this with a twin needle and used woolly nylon thread in the bobbin. I absolutely LOVE this neckline! You would think it would be bulky with 3 layers of fabric folded right there, but the top stitching really flattens things out. I really dislike not having a neckband on a knit shirt (like on my Lark Tee - that neckline is just folded down and stitched), and having a traditional neckband out on display around a boat neck would just look silly, so having it tucked under like this makes it a little more classy. I highly recommend it :) This was an extremely easy change to make, and the resulting neckline is the perfect size for me. All ready to wear boat neck tops show my bra and garments. ALL.OF.THEM. But this one covers everything up very nicely. I'm hooked, folks!

After my neckline hack, I sewed this up just like you're supposed to. This is my first time using the 3/4 sleeve and it turned out to be the perfect length. I did tighten up the sleeve hem area since I originally planned this to be worn under a cardigan so I wanted the sleeve hems to stay in place. I was very careful with my stripe matching, and this really paid off. I know you can't see it because I forgot to take a picture, but my side seams are matched beautifully. Also check out my stripe matching on the sleeve in that first photo. Oh yeah! lol I'm not very good at pattern matching yet and it always feels like a tedious chore, so I'm pretty thrilled when it turns out how I hoped.

Another fantastic benefit of having a living person take your blog photos - they can smooth out the back of your shirt and get all your stripe lined up. Thanks, babe! You can also see my stripe matching across the upper back at the sleeves. I'm pretty proud of that, I must say. I also made sure to hem this along one stripe. Usually my hems would be slightly curved, but I wanted to keep everything level for aesthetics. I'm pleased with the result. My fabric came from Walmart of all places! After reading on Lauren's Blog that she found some decent knits there on the cheap I couldn't resist checking it out myself. I came away with 3 fabrics including 3 yards of this one. It's 80% polyester, 17% rayon, 3% spandex, which would normally put me off but this had a nice medium weight to it. I find that thinner poly knits cling in unflattering ways on me so I avoid them, but this is super springy and is thick enough to hide bumps but not so think you can't wear it in Florida. Also the stripes are yarn dyed, so everything was wonderfully on grain. I'm really surprised at how much I like this fabric :) The recovery is fantastic, and even though it's a snug fit I don't feel self conscious. Also in spite of it being a horizontal stripe, I think this shirt is quite flattering because it hugs my narrowest areas.

With all my on-the-fly neckline slicing, I did end up with the stripes slightly uneven at the center front of all places. Thankfully I was able to fudge that area when I top stitched the neckband and I couldn't be happier with how that turned out. Let's all just take a minute to appreciate that neckline. Horizontal just at the base of the neck, no bra show on the sides, discreetly top stitched. *Ah* It's a beautiful thing. I seriously want to sew a million shirts with this neckline now. Prepare yourselves.

So the unfortunate part of this shirt is that I did not like it with my other pieces for the Outfit Along (womp womp). After finishing this top I excitedly put on my skirt and sweater only to just not feel right with everything together. Maybe if this shirt was a scoop neck it wouldn't be so bad to me, but mostly I think it's that the bold stripe looks odd against the girly lace pattern in the sweater. Also the V neckline on the sweater goes so deep that it just feels like too much stripe on display. Maybe if it was a scoop neck I wouldn't be so put off by the combination, but as it is now I just don't see me wearing all 3 pieces together. I do love this top with the skirt though, so that's a partial win :) Thankfully I had other knits in my stash that matched the sweater style better, so the Outfit Along entry was saved. So this shirt is a nice bonus to the challenge :)  I love this shirt and I still have plenty of this fabric left for future projects. Hooray!

Summary:
Fabric: 1.1 yards of black and white stripe poly rayon knit - $4.00
Pattern: Renfrew by Sewaholic
Notions: black thread - $0.50, woolly nylon thread - $0.10
Time: 4 hours
Total Cost: $ 4.60

FO: Blue Spotted Lark Tee

Sometimes you need to jump start your sew-jo by just grabbing a project and making it up! I've been in a bit of a sewing funk lately - part of it is due to the state of my sewing room, but part is just that I haven't really known what to do with myself. I find myself crippled by the thought of making muslins, and all the new patterns I want to make up would definitely need some fitting work. I just want to sew! Not fit! I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but it makes it hard to want to start any new projects. In a slight compromise, I decided to sew up a t-shirt with a new pattern I've wanted to try. Knits are so much easier to fit on the fly, so I grabbed my Lark Tee pattern and got to work.

So this is the Lark Tee by Grainling Studio. I grabbed the pattern in a Craftsy clearance sale thinking it would be nice to have all the different neckline options on a nice basic t-shirt like this. I was most tempted by the boat neck since that's one of my favorite necklines in ready to wear shirts but I still had yet to make one. So this is the boat neck with 3/4 sleeves. Going by their size chart, I sewed up a size 16 everywhere except I graded to an 18 at the waist. I did add in a hollow chest adjustment as I traced the pattern, so there is a 1.5" wedge removed from the center front in my version as well. The fit is ok, but I will probably size down in the future - the shoulders are a bit wide, and the neckline gets very bra-showy after an hour or so of wear.

Something interesting about this pattern - it's quite long! Usually I have to lengthen t-shirt patterns because I have a long torso, but this one actually seems a bit too long in the photos (but it's so comfy to wear in this length!) so I may need to go shorter next time. This is pretty crazy since I took a 1.5" hem and cut off the excess already. I also found the sleeves quite long and did a 1" deep hem there, cutting off about 3/4" excess. So this is just made for a larger build than me I guess.

I'm getting a lot of pooling at my lower back on this pattern - I'm not sure if I just usually don't pay attention to it or if this pattern has it more so than others. I certainly don't want to add a center back seam, but there must be another way to correct this. We'll see.

I guess I should mention my fabric, lol. I used this pin dot royal blue rib knit. I usually shy away from rib knit, but this was a great thrift store buy that's been in my stash for ages. It's a cute pattern, and it's a medium weight knit like an interlock, but it's very nice and soft. I had 3 yards in my stash, so I figured it would be worth a try to use it on this shirt. Now I think my "stretching out" issue might be because of the rib knit. 

Also, characteristically of rib knit, hemming with a twin needle stretched out the sleeve hems. This happens to me every time with rib knit! It's so frustrating! I use a walking foot and everything, but it doesn't seem to help. It's not awful on this one, but it does flare at the sleeves a bit. I can live with it on this muslin, and I'll still wear it, but it's something to consider for the future.

So ... I made something! It may not be perfect, but it is certainly wearable :) In fact I wore this out for dinner on my birthday. If I make another Lark Tee, I will definitely size down and make it shorter. I also would like the neckline a bit higher, so I will probably use Heather B's Slash Neck Hack she posted a while back.

Anyone else out there like the Lark Tee pattern?

Summary:
Fabric: 1.5 yards blue cotton rib knit with tiny white dots - $0.50 (thrifted)
Pattern: Lark Tee by Grainline Studio - $6.40
Notions: knit stay tape - $0.05, blue thread - $0.50, white woolly nylon thread - $0.25
Time: 3 hours
Total Cost: $7.70