During one of my many trips to the fabric store I found a fantastic piece of fleece that I couldn't resist. Its a nice blue, not bright but not pastel, fuzzy fleece on one side and a smooth knit on the other.
At the time I had an idea that I would use the material to line the teal vinyl raincoat I was making, but after realising just how stretchy the material was I quickly scrapped that idea. So what to use of this beautifully snuggly fabric for now?
After sitting in my fabric stash for a while I finally realised that this material would make for a really comfortable, warm shirt.
After reading about how Amanda made
this baseball shirt I decided that this exposed seam technique would work fantastically with my fabric. I also liked how her side seams curved around to the back, however I thought it'd be even better if the seam curved around the the front.
I took my basic knit pattern and modified the side seams, cutting a triangle out of the front and adding it to the back.
As I also wanted to the shirt to be a raglan sleeve I modified the front and back pieces by cutting them off at the raglan line that I wanted and then adding those cut off pieces to my sleeve piece to create the raglan sleeve. So I now have a basic raglan sleeve knit pattern. I scooped out the neckline, though not quite as much as I had planned, and not enough for the neck band that I cut so the neck band unfortunately does not fit flatly against my skin. I could take it off and cut it down but.......I'm too lazy so it stays as is.
Each of the seams is sewn with wrong sides together, then the seams opened out and a decorative stitch used to stitch down the middle of the seam. The edges of the seams were cut off close to the stitching line. The strip of fabric I used for the neck band I folded inside out so that there is a texture difference between the bands and the main shirt. The ends of the sleeve were turned to create the same texture difference and stitched using a double needle. The hem at the bottom however was turned under and again stitched with the double needle.
I did make one slight mistake when cutting out this pattern. I forgot to cut the front and back pieces on the fold so I ended up having to sew a seam down the front and back of the shirt. This seam I sewed right sides together so that its not as noticeable.
Final thoughts - it's quite a clingy fabric so not the most flattering as it shows off all my bulges, but that's my body not the shirt. Again the neckline wasn't perfect but I still like this shirt.....and I LOVE wearing it - its so cozy and warm I never want to take it off.
Since I was so happy with the feel, if not the look of this shirt I wanted to try another version.
This time I thought that instead of just curving the side seam around I wanted to add a contrasting colour at the sides to give the illusion of a waist......it didn't quite work as I had planned.
The idea was to do a colour block with a contrast colour at the neck band, waist band, cuffs and two curved panels at the sides. I still think the idea is good, but the execution not so much. One of the biggest problems is that this one turned out slightly larger than the original. Even though I took the seam allowance off the center back and front seams when I remembered to cut this one on the fold, it still ended up quite a bit larger than the original. I assume that it has something to do with the seams at the colour block but whatever it is, the sides of this shirt don't sit as nicely as the original.
In order to get the new pattern I went back to the original side seams then drew a curve that I thought would work. I probably could have brought it in a bit more at the front and it definitely needed to come in a lot more at the back as they're barely noticeable from the back.
I then put the two curves together at the sides to create one side piece starting at the underarm and finishing at the bottom band.
The fabric that I used for this side piece was a scrap of thin black knit that I had in my stash. To make sure there were no issues with different material thicknesses etc, and to make sure the top stayed as cozy as the original, I also cut the side piece in the blue fleece and basted the two fabrics together before sewing them in.
The neck band, bottom band and cuffs were made from some black knit ribbing that I had in the stash. I think this was one of the major problems for this shirt. Whilst the cuffs are fine, the bottom seam does not sit nicely at all.
The neck band is probably my biggest issue though. I actually scooped the front neckline out further than the original and made it into a V shape, but then I cut the neck band too short so the neckline, whilst sitting nicely against the neck is quite tight. I lapped the ends of the neck band over each other in a V, but one end is pulling really badly.
So overall I like this one less than the original, and yet is does have potential.
I've noticed writing these last couple of posts that I always have plans to fix each pattern that I make, however the next time around I feel the need to modify the pattern so much that its essentially a new pattern with a whole new set of problems so I never end up with that perfect piece. You know what? I'm actually OK with that. The thing I like most about sewing is learning new things, working out how pieces go together, If I was just following existing sewing patterns I'd probably get bored - I need the challenge, so to that end, I accept my not so great finished projects and wear them proudly!
