Carbuncle Gonk Split

 I forget how I was introduced to the concept of a split shirt--I think it may have been a snarky Discord post, with the first examples being AliExpress offerings where the graphics were very obviously printed after the front fabrics were sewn together, and very obviously misaligned with the seam.

The idea of making a split shirt from scratch bubbled in my back brain for a while, and then I realized I had the perfect opportunity to make one for the kiddo from the fabric left after making the previous two pairs of pants--I had been able to eke out a short sleeve shirt for me from the remaining cloth after a previous pair of pants made from a 2 yard pre-cut, so I knew there wouldn't be enough left over to make a traditional sweatshirt from a single color (and the fabric is all wrong for short sleeves.)

So...maybe...this could be the opportunity to try a split shirt?

And then I cut out the pants and it seemed like there might possibly be enough left of each one to make two slim fit sweatshirts for a skinny kid

but

no.

I would not second guess myself and I would make that split shirt.

Which of course brought up the question of what graphics?

I decided this would not be the time to surprise the kiddo and asked for his ideas.  I specified that I'd rather not do memes, because, when he is over a meme, he is over it, and I do love him but I don't really enjoy making things that he won't even look at once he no longer finds them funny. (Shrek shirt, I'm so sorry you weren't appreciated longer.)  So, yeah, I wasn't willing to do anything related to Better Call Saul (which no-one in this household has ever watched.  He just likes the memes.)

Outside memes, he does like his mildly obscure video game characters.  He emailed me images of his chosen two: Puyo Puyo Carbuncle and Lego Star Wars Gonk Droid.  I made freezer paper stencils and sewed everything together and presented him with this

The base pattern is good ol' KwikSew 1650, with the shoulder contrasts omitted and improvised seam allowance added at the front and back centers.

I laid out the images in Inkscape and did quick vector outlines of the pertinent features and added the text.  Then I separated them, printed them, then traced them onto freezer paper.  I got a bit confused while cutting out Carbuncle, but managed to figure things out (and fish some of them out of the trash.)

I left little paper supports in place for the inner masking areas, then carefully cut those away after ironing the freezer paper to the fabric.  I used acrylics to paint each fabric piece separately, bleeding paint all the way to the cut edges, leaving space for margins of error in assembly.

I initially had painted Carbuncle in a light yellow orange (on top of a white base coat) and the Gonk in black, but I thought heyyyyyyy I can go over the Gonk in gunmetal and Carbuncle in gold...

However, those metallic paints were applied on top of the other paints, so they result is currently a trifle stiff.  It should soften with washing.  Maybe someday I'll buy fabric medium.

(Edit, much later: I thought I had accidentally gotten a blob of dried paint stuck on the Gonk, and I chided myself for being so inattentive to not have noticed that until it was so late that picking it off would have required having to paint over it again, which I probably would not be able to match properly, so I figured we'd just live with it.  Then I washed it and looked closer and realized, oh...that was a bit of freezer paper I hadn't peeled off.  Problem solved.)

I did also thoroughly press the center seam after it was sewn, using baking parchment paper to protect the paint and iron from each other.

If you noticed that vertical line running through the Gonk, that would be the reason both of these fabrics were in the Walmart mill end pre-cuts--not because they were mill ends, exactly, but because their original knit tubes were split a few inches of off where they should have been, which would have been at that line.  I was aware and compensating for that line when  made the pants, but it completely skipped my mind when cutting the shirt.  It's fine.

I had originally thought I'd use actual ribbing for the neckline, cuffs, and waistband, but, enh, there was more than enough of the charcoal and cayenne knits left, so I went ahead and used those with the appropriate seams.

(Edit, five days later: I straightened out the seam on the neck band to fix that jog just past the center seam)

I carefully pinned through the seams on the front and left the pins in place while I sewed everything, and they stayed aligned.

When I was looking at examples of split shirts, I came to the conclusion that the difference between a split (or half and half) shirt and a two-tone color block shirt is that the split shirt should look like it was made from two existing shirts that got sewn together, so the colors of everything stay that same on each side, while two-tone color blocking alternates everything at every opportunity.  So.  As much as I wanted to swap the cuff colors, I stayed true to the split shirt paradigm.

As with the previous two pairs of pants made from these fabrics, the interior is fluffy and finished

And the back--confirming that it would have looked fine if I hadn't done any front graphics at all

But! Freezer paper stencils are fun, so there are no regrets here.

I still have a considerable amount of both of these fabrics left, and, at the moment, no idea what to make from them.  But, since I don't like putting leftovers in the stash, I will figure out something.