Three summer shirts

It's been quite some time since my last blog post.  There's a good reason for that, just prior to that post I actually got a full time job!  That has been quite a change for the entire household with me going from home full time to working full time.  We are all still adjusting.  But I do love my new job. I'm working as a pattern development manager for Cashmerette Patterns. It's a great combination of writing/creating patterns and project management work, really my perfect job. 

Still working full time is taking a bit of getting used to.  Not so much the working, as the knowing when to stop.  I tend to get on a roll and suddenly I've been working from 6:30am to 5pm without a break...not a good idea.  And it doesn't leave much time to sew outside of work, which in turn means that I haven’t been able to add much to my wardrobe this year. Thankfully my wardrobe is fairly well stocked but I have been noticing a few holes.  Mainly in the work wardrobe department.  Now don’t get me wrong, It's not like I'm expected to wear business clothes, and most of my work is done remotely, however I do have to occasionally go into the studio and that means thinking about what I'm wearing.  In the middle of summer I’m either wearing casual dresses, or shorts and a t-shirt.  I don't love to wear dresses into the studio as a lot of what I'm doing has me climbing ladders, and sitting on the floor etc which is not always easy in a skirt. As for the shorts and T-shirts, well I made three new pairs of shorts last year so I’m good there, but finding things to wear them with is something else.  Most of the summer shirts in my wardrobe are tank top types, which is great for a warm day, but not so great for an air conditioned studio.  So I’ve made a couple of new short sleeve shirts. 

The first one is a basic T-shirt.  On one of my trips to the fabric store I found some seriously nice jersey fabric.  It’s got a sort of micro fibre/velvety texture to one side which makes it feel lovely.  The colour isn’t too exciting - it’s a burgundy sort of colour - and quite dark but I figured it was perfect for using to perfect my basic T-shirt pattern.  Since I made my new moulage/sloper in Dec I haven’t had a chance to make a basic knit shirt pattern out of it and decided it was about time. 

I’m quite happy with the way it turned out - the sleeves have just a small puff, and I created a faced square neckline for this shirt which is quite nice….

But the finished T-shirt was just a bit...boring.  The colour is a bit dull by itself, and it’s just a basic T-shirt - so I decided I’d try and jazz it up a bit and pulled out my embroidery thread and needles.  I decided to keep the animal theme going that I started with my T-Shirt quilt, and hit upon the idea of embroidering our pet hedgehog onto the front of the shirt.   I used the original photo of him as a baby hoglet, traced it onto the shirt and just free embroidered it.  I’m quite happy with the way it turned out - it just makes the shirt a little more exciting.

After wearing the shirt once I decided that it was just a little too short, so I unpicked the hem and added a 2.5" wide band on the bottom - it's now a bit too long, but it's certainly wearable.

Now that I had a T-Shirt pattern that I was happy with I decided to make a second one

Once again - I didn't want it to be a plain T-Shirt. So this time I decided to play with the sleeves. I tested out a number of different sleeve options. The one I went for in the end is one that is gathered down the centerline. I really love the way this looks - and once I had made the pattern it's not that hard to make those sleeves.

For this version I went back to a V neckline, but still used a stitched down facing to finish it.

The fabric is one that has been in my stash for quite a while. The main fabric varies between red and blue, and then there is an almost animal print in black and green over the top. Its a cotton jersey fabric. I placed the fabric pieces so that the blue was closer to my face and the red down at my hips.

The third shirt I made is a woven T.  I used my moulage to remake my gathered shirt pattern, but without the neckline gathers.  Unfortunately I’m not sure if it was my drafting, or the french seams I used taking up more room, but I don’t feel like this shirt fits as well as the original.

Looks like it could definitely use some extra length in the front.

I really took my time making this shirt and made the shirt reversible, trying to making the best of both sides of the beautiful double gauze cotton fabric that I used. 

I tried to make the facing plaid match on the inside.

and dealt with the seams and darts as best I could.

In the end it was probably all a waste of time as I don't think I've ever worn it inside out.  I still like the large plaid side better.

In the end this shirt is nice, but not as nice as the one I was copying - which is still my favourite summer shirt.

I've had these shirts made for quite some time now, but trying to find time to take photos (especially since my remote to my camera stopped working) is hard. But I got the camera up and running today and tried to photograph everything I've made in the last couple of months - so look out for some more posts really soon!