Plain black basic Tshirt

This is Newlook 6142. 

Its certainly not a very interesting top really but possibly the most useful and sensible thing to be making.

Being a basic black T shirt this will get worn loads. Its much wanted and needed.

I actually bought this fabric for me. Its a very soft silky viscose rayon and not at all usual to be made into a T shirt but it made a lovely top thats very basic. Hence very wearable. Mick needed the T shirt not me. I have very few stashed fabrics suitable for men really so probably thats what I should be concentrating on buying next.

Whilst viscose rayon would not be most people's first choice for T shirt fabric I have to recommend it. Its hard to sew though being slippy.

 Anyway apparently he loves the feel of this so well worth making a T shirt for him from it.

There is really not much else I can say about this other than its a big success.

Bracken

Stripey T shirt

Mick loves this T shirt. Its an almost exact copy of one he has from the mid 90s which is now going in holes and used to be his favourite top.

 I am actually not so happy with this as he is. I reckon the sleeves are a bit long for a start.

Mick though said they are fine so I have left them. Its an easy thing to sort out later if he changes his mind.

The neck though is another thing. His original 90s T shirt has a wrap type of V neck which I attempted to copy. Its not the best thing I have sewn thats for certain.

 You can see how I tried to resew it and then resew it again to get it right. 

Well I did not manage that very well at all.

Still despite this I have made him a top he seems to like - as in I wanted to wash it and he refused to let me and wore it an extra day so he must  be into it.

I made another top for Mick from this fabric ages ago. I realised when I made that, that this was just about and exact copy of the fabric of his much loved T shirt, hence I bought more of that stripey fabric for just this project. I was not sure how to make the V neck though so its taken a couple of years before I was confident enough to tackle this. I am still not happy with it, but suspect its better than I would have achieved two years ago.  Next time it will be better.

There is just one more T shirt I need to show you then this challenge is complete. Hopefully I will get photos of that one tomorrow.

For now here's another shot of Mick in his new stripey top

 

Stay safe everyone

Bracken

Another black and blue hoody

This top is really made from oddments of fabric. I ended up with bits all over the room to find fabrics of similar weight and stretch for this one. But I am happy with the results. Or relatively so anyway. This worked better than the other multi media top I made for Mick. I actually made this one first which is probably why because I had bigger bits of fabric to play with for this one. This is yet anther of McCalls 6614. This time I used the front panels but joined the back ones together to make a flat solid back.

Front and sleeve panels

Front panel is the blue waffle football shirt fabric, front sides and sleeves are ribben stretch lycra fabric. This works well for the front side panels but less so for the sleeves because I have ended up with a slightly wavy edge where the sleeves are hemmed. Hopefully this may wear in. I considered pressing but have previously managed to melt the white version of this fabric so decided not to risk that.

Back panel is the stretch performance fabric left over from the red top.

Thats all for now for hoodies I think. I am now making non-hoody tops. I will show you those later

Take care

Bracken

Micks Red Hoody

As promised a couple of days ago, here are the photos of  Mick's red hoody. This one is a bit special because I actually bought the black fabric for the top. 

Usually I buy fabric and buy patterns and match them together, as I get inspired.So I do not actually very often go shopping for a specific item. The black fabric is high quality and quite thick performance fabric with 4-way stretch. I am never sure if its really 2 way or 4 way but it stretches really well in all directions so whatever that is is what this black fabric is.

The Red fabric is football shirt type of fabric the same fabric I used for the disastrous red and navy hoody.

Since then I have lengthened the pattern pieces.They fit now.

This top is a success we both feel which is nice. Its the last decent sized bits of my red fabric too. I may manage something with the offcuts but I am not too sure what as yet.
















I did though make a skirt from this as well ages ago now. I will have to find that out because it has vanished into the wardrobe somewhere. Its good when your sewing makes you remember other items you have not worn in ages!













This is again McCalls M6614. This time though I have eliminated the side panels to cut a plain back and front. I just pinned the pattern pieces together for this to eliminate the seam allowances and as usual with this pattern I also removed the darts which are at the top of the sleeve.

The two fabrics seem to work very well because the black is quite heavy and the football shirt fabric which is actually not very stretchy but is kind of waffled is a similar weight.

I hope you are all keeping well in these strange times. I have been relatively busy despite being shut in most of the day. I managed to cut out 5 summer dresses and some bras yesterday so hopefully over the next few weeks I can show you these as well. Keep sewing people.......

Stay safe and well

Bracken

Micks warm T shirt top

I made a blue hoodie for my Mick a few weeks back. I needed to alter the pattern for that because it was just too short and after repeated disasters I had to bite the bullet and change the pattern. It was a big success so this time I decided to have a go at making something similar for him. Well no, not at all similar. This is a different pattern and never needed to be altered for fit. It was pattern hacked though, to get this design. Its the same pattern I used for the striped top:

Its based on Newlook 6142 which is meant to have a zip front and be a jacket, but I traced the top to make a yoke and removed the hood. Front the photo you can see how this got pinned onto the fabric. I forgot to add seam allowance on the tracing so I added a guiding line of pins and I did the same with the main part of the front where I just folded the pattern under at the tracing line. Cuting on the OUTSIDE of the pins then gives me a seam allowance so that I do not alter the length. Previous problems with the blue top pattern have proven how crucial a correct length is for Mick's tops.

To be perfectly honest, although this top worked, and would be counted as a success, it is not. I designed it with a collar with the idea the zip would go to the top of the collar. Then I went and cocked it all up. 

The yoke is double thickness.  I did the zip first which was attached to the first layer of yoke, then I attached the yoke facing to give double thickness, then joined the main body piece and then top stitched accross the join. The problem was having put the zip in and sewn all this I realise at this point I should have had the collar on first before the zip was sewn in. That would mean the zip went right up the collar to make a tube necked top. I do not believe I can unpick all this without making holes in the fabric, and I do not have enough fabric to redo the front. If I then added the collar I had cut, it would have had a shirt collar which is not at all what my other half likes so I ended up leaving the collar off all together. What I should have done is sew the collar on as a single layer, add zip and then add facing and second part of the collar. So after having realised all this I then decide to just overlock round the neck and hem it. Its now a zip front Tshirt which is OK, its just not what I was aiming for. I then had a slight disaster with the front neck and cut the edge off with the overlocker unevenly so its not quite right. I actually thought it was going to be scrap at that point, but when I did the neck edge hem its kind of ok and despite the problems is wearable.

I am very happy with my pattern hacking despite the problems because I have made a basic hoodie into a totally different top. I can make another top as I intended because I have the patern pieces for the collar and the yoke and I have marked the pattern where to fold it over with fluorescent highlinghter for future reference.

Mick seems to like the top and has worn it a few times but I keep seeing the mistakes whcn he does. I want to get some more fabric now to make a perfect version of this top as I originally designed it with a collar and a zip.

As usual we got photo-bombed by the dogs!

They do like to be involved.

Originally, I made the sleeves really long - as in I chopped 6  inches or 15cm off them and even now, they are still probably a bit long. Personally I like mine long and Mick has not complained so I have left them.

No doubt about it its his kind of top so at least I made something good.

. I feel I am getting better at making mens clothing now so have cut a few more tops out.  I will show you them once I sew them up.

 Thanks for visiting,

Bracken