Monday, May 24, 2010

Fantasy tee-shirt

Today was a very nice day with rain coming and going. I started to work on a tee - shirt for my youngest daughter-in-law -for her birthday in July. I had found this piece of pale green at The Pottery. Meagan's favorite color is shades of green and this year she is starting to like some pink - maybe relating to her being pregnant and her female side??? I loved this piece of fabric because it was SOOOOO soft.That was what caught my attention.

 I think the finished project might be too large because of its extreme stretchiness. But I might be able to pull it off because she will be 5 months pregnant and she might appreciate the "give" and since it is so lightweight she will need it to be cool as she can be.  I can remember the Summer that I carried her now husband - I thought I would die from the heat of the pregnancy and the Summer heat combined together. The previous 2 pregnancies were Winter babies and I learned to appreciate them. LOL

Here I have laid my front side on top of the back side with right sides together. That was one step that I really had to work on when I first started. But now I find when I keep "right sides together" - helps keep me on "the right side of the road"! :)

This is one tip that Lynne shared with me - that really saves my hide! When it came to the process of attaching a neckband to the shirt top -always throwed me ! I would end up with it being sooo crooked or the raw ends would not be even and go anywhere that they wanted to. I was beginning to think that I would never be able to put on a neckband without ruining it.So, Lynne told me to sew the to ends of the band together and then take it to the machine and zigzag the two raw edges together so it cannot go which ever way it wants to to.I now have it captured.

Now I am ready to attach the band to the shirt.

First you divide your shirt neck in half and I mark these dividers with pins or sometimes I just put a dot of a marker color on it and then take that half and fold it over once again and mark your edges once again. You now have markers to make your band go on evenly.

Here you can see both the band and the shirt divided into fourths and I have them all marked with pins.

This is what it looks like when you match all of your markers. The band is still facing right sides together.

When you go to attach your sleeves -you divide it evenly also -so it will divide evenly from the shoulder seam.

this is one of the sleeves attached at the shoulder -with your fabric -right sides facing each other.

When ever you see the little marks on your pattern - they are like road sides for you. This one is one of my Favorites - it means for you to make sure you lay your fabric together and this piece goes toward the back part of your shirt.

Then after I have sewn the parts all together I go back and serge the the ends of the sleeves and the bottom of the tail of the shirt. This is just to make it look cleaner when you put your hems in and it also helps guide you down your road!


This is her shirt and next will be a close up of the design.

1 comment:

  1. Wow Linda...I would NEVER have thought of sewing a tee-shirt! Maybe I just didn't realize you could sew one. You did a great job, and I know your DIL will love it! And congrats on the newest coming baby! How exciting! That was a very special birthday gift and you got it done 2 months ahead of time. I'm impressed. My DD1's birthday is in a few weeks, and she wants me to make her a special tote bag that is embroidered with the name of her business on it...and I've not even begun it. Oh well..guess I work best under pressure. Have a good day!

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