Test Shirt: Clowncore Proximity Edition

 I have an idea for a reverse appliqué knit shirt, but I wasn't sure what pattern to use, so I decided to do a test run with Kwik Sew 303

 

 since it offered a much slimmer sleeve than most of my knit shirt patterns, which are largely from the 1980s and 1990s (or are a bit more modern but don't have long sleeve options at all.)

Of course, I also don't want to deal with darts on the future reverse appliqué shirt, so I folded out the dart before cutting this.  And also! A previous owner had used newspaper to add hip curves to this very-straight pattern, and I decided that seemed like a good idea. (Alas, the newspaper is mostly sports, and that doesn't interest me, but the automotive ads are fun, and the print date was September 21, 1981--over a decade after the pattern's 1970 copyright.)

(note: not the final form)

Vintage KwikSew patterns are odd, aren't they?  I am accustomed to their ¼" seam allowances, but this one threw in some non-standard sizing, too: size 8 is meant for 34" bust, size 10 for 35½", and size 12 for 37".  Yeah.

The pattern envelope illustrations looked somewhat boxy, so I decided to cut this test shirt in size 8, knowing that folding out the dart would eliminate some more width...although I did place the front pattern piece so the curve that formed on the center front by folding out that dart was at the fold, thus giving a little more width in the area above that.  I really should trace that off and swing out the dart out properly, shouldn't I.

The sleeves went in wonderfully, though!

You know I love a sleeve that I don't have to press into submission, and, indeed, not one part of this project was pressed at all.  As I'm sure the wrinkled blue fabric indicates.

I added some seam tape as shoulder stabilizer.

I suspected the size 8 sleeves would be shorter than I like, and they are, so I'll cut the length of size 12 next time

(which, since I need to trace the front and eliminate the dart properly, I guess that next time won't be the reverse appliqué project I have in mind.) 

The two lines of stitching at the hem are an attempt at imitating the appearance of a coverstitch.  Someday, I will have a coverstitch machine...

As usual, I follow commercial neckband construction and offset the ribbing seam a bit back from the left shoulder seam

But.

We need to talk about that neckband.

I had noticed, when looking through the pattern pieces, that there was no piece for the crew neck neckline, but the newspaper sewist had made a piece that seemed to be labeled as the neckband (as someone with bad handwriting, I'm usually pretty good at deciphering other people's bad handwriting, but this one is a bit challenging.)  There were also newspaper pattern pieces to make facings for the high round neckline.

So I looked for a pattern piece guide, and there was none.  However! I saw that the directions said to cut a strip of knit at a certain size, then wrap it around your head and pull it as tight as possible, mark that, and cut off the excess to find the neckband length.  Since every knit varies in sketchiness, this seemed sound.

However.

I'm not sure if a pattern made for the knit yardages of 1970 is the right thing to use with a modern super stretchy rib knit.  I honestly could have stretched it more and cut it smaller and it would have physically still fit over my head--as it was, the neckline was so small that, while it was soft and stretchy, it still hit that exact spot on my throat that says NO when necklines touch it (like when a T-shirt is accidentally put on backwards.)

I still had plenty of the stripe knit left, though, so I cut a new, longer neckband.  Instead of carefully picking out all of the previous stitching, I carefully cut just outside it, then scooped the center front out a bit more, and re-sewed the neckband.

Much better.

We'll see if the waviness settles down after being washed and dried.

The neckband seam offset ended up larger than before, but I did a better job of aligning the stripes.

(I also noticed that the top of one sleeve had more orange stripe exposed than the other, so I quickly added another curve of stitching there to even things out.)

Here's how much smaller the original neckband was.

Even with the need to completely re-do the neckband--and the fiddliness of aligning the stripes on the side I couldn't see while sewing--this shirt went together so fast.  Which seems to be something I say about every basic knit shirt I sew, huh.

And it wasn't until I was already working on this that I realized it leans a bit toward Clowncore, even though I think I'd had the idea to coordinate these two fabrics (both sourced from other people's destashes, thanks again!) before I knew what Clowncore was.  I can live with that.