Strawberry Shirt

After finishing the reroots, I wanted to get back to sewing with a quick project, and New Look 6068 (and the ways I vary it) is one of the quickest.

I also decided to use up a bit of dark red cotton interlock, the origin of which...I have no idea, and there wasn't enough for sleeves.  I really wanted sleeves.  So! Contrast sleeves it is.  And I would use the same contrast fabric for the neckband ribbing modification I use on that pattern.  The pink rib knit I've used many times seemed like a good candidate...but...I didn't have enough of that for long sleeves.

Since I need to replenish my "t-shirts for layering" supply, I decided against using the flared/elastic sleeves included with New Look 6068 and once again borrowed the sleeves from Kwik Sew 303, which is definitely my standard combo now, so I took an official photo of them together

That brought me to the point of cutting things out and getting ready to sew and thinking...hmm.  Dark red and gray-heathered pink aren't exactly summery short sleeve colors.  Maybe I could add...appliqué?  I'm certainly no stranger to that.  So...what shape?  Heart(s)?  Red and pink in February certainly suggest hearts, but I'm not, in  general, a hearts kind of person.  So...strawberries, again?  I found some muted pink calico with scattered white dots in the small yardage stash, and still had more than enough green broadcloth with Wonder Under already fused to the back, so, yes.  Strawberries.

I fused the pink shapes first, then pinned a scrap of embroidery stabilizer behind all of them and started zigzagging with light pink thread on the top, then fused on the caps and switched to green thread.  The dark pink bobbin thread does show in a few spots, but, as usual, nobody better be lookin' that close at me.

I finished the appliqués by carefully trimming the embroidery stabilizer around the shapes on the back.  I'm not going to worry about applying Fray Check.  Probably.

I drew all of the shapes freehand on the back of the Wonder Under paper after it was fused to the fabric.  As usual, I was going for "finished" over "polished." 

I cut the neck ribbing at 2½" by 18", and again suspect I maybe should have made it longer than 18", but it worked out well enough.  I top stitched around the neckband with pink thread, just to try to bring more pink into the whole thing.

I had enough of the red fabric to cut the back on the fold, but I honestly prefer the shaping of the seamed back.

No, I have not changed my serger thread.

I attached and top stitched the neckband, then sewed on the sleeves, before applying the strawberries. Then I sewed and serged the side seams, serged the edges of everything, then hemmed the lower edge and sleeves by using the magnetic seam guide to guide the fold depth, and sewed twice to mimic cover stitching.

The light pink thread I used matched the sleeve fabric better than the dark pink used for the lower hems, but, again: no-one's getting that close in real life.

I aligned the ribbing seam with the center back seam,and started and stopped the top stitching there, so it's kind of a mess.  It's fine.

And the back.

I just realized I probably could have put a strawberry back there, too. Hmm...

I really do need to sew more basic knit T-shirt-type shirts.  I've thrifted basic tees in the past, but I haven't been--or been inclined to go--to a normal thrift store for a while, and I do have an assortment of small amounts of knit fabric, and have finally settled on this pattern as a go-to that fits the way I want, so I might as well make a few.  Probably without the appliqués.

Probably.