And here's another New Look 6766 tank top!
Once again made with fabric sent by the same person who provided the fabric used for my first two versions of this. This time, though, it was a proper piece of yardage, of just the right length, making it the first time I've cut this pattern without having to get creative. It was nice!
I thrifted Simplicity Super Saver 8143, from 1987, a forgotten number of years ago.
It always looked useful, but I rarely had the right kind of fabric for it. Once I finally had some, I discovered the tissue had been cut in size 6 (for the top; the skirt was cut in size 10, and I have yet to have any reason to concern myself over that) and despaired, since that was so small.
The recent bout of experimenting with the tank top from New Look 6766 led me to re-evaluate the idea of "correct size" when it comes to a tank top sewing pattern. Stretch makes a big difference.
And there's loads of stretch in a rib knit, with plenty left of the pale peach rib knit I got from the craft thrift store about two years ago, so I went ahead and cut that in the available size. I did compensate a bit in sewing by making the side seams only about ¼". I probably didn't need to do that, because, again: stretch.
But, hey, my main reason for wanting a tank top like this is to layer in winter, and this will certainly work for that.
About four years ago, I made a shirt that mixed other fabrics with the small amount of an extremely late 80s/early 90s map print cotton(y) jersey. I went on to wear the shirt just enough to realize that the shape was very wrong for my tastes and layering propensities.
I kept the shirt because I did still like the ridiculous print, and I eventually moved it out of my closet and into the fabric stash, as much for potential re-use of the print part as because I was not going to just give away that much black rib knit. I can use that stuff.
Now that I've added the tank top from New Look 6766 to my sewing repertoire, I have a potential use for small yardages of knits. I dug out that shirt and found that I could just barely (it would need minor piecing at the hem again) squeeze the body of the tank top from the map knit in the shirt.
(the black rib knit used here was not that which was used in that shirt, but instead something thinner.)
Some of the improvisations needed to make the previous project were prompted by the narrowness of the fabric I was working with. I liked the result, and turned to another long narrow piece of fabric, supplied by the same acquaintance, for a second try.
This leftover fabric was not the same length as the first, so I wasn't going to be able to cut the back as two pieces, and the width was such that I definitely couldn't cut the front on the fold
Not, at least, in size 12.
I referred to one of my worn out thrifted tank tops, and realized that, while it fit fine, it was very narrow when on its own. The fabric I wanted to use next was extremely stretchy, so I decided to try making a very narrow version of the New Look 6766 tank top.
Did I mention it was narrow?
I have, quite accidentally, learned that tank tops are trendy right now. While I don't care about trends, that did remind me that my supply of thrifted tank tops--worn as extra abdominal warmth layers in winter--is showing its age, so maybe I could try making a few?
I started with some of the leftover knit fabric the friend sent, smaller pieces of which I used for some sleep shirts. The larger pieces of the fabric I still had weren't, mostly, much larger, so, instead of a traditional tank top, I tried a strappy style.
Specifically, it's the shirt from New Look 6766, which is a pattern I have used may times, but not for the shirt. I suspect that, when I found it at a thrift store and decided to get it at all, I figured I'd never make the shirt.
Well, here we are.
It works!
For quite a while, I've been sleeping in thrifted T-shirts that had gotten too worn out in everyday use. I'd thrift a shirt, wear it until it started developing holes or other signs of damage, and, if I didn't creatively repair them for continued dressing use, retire them to the pajama drawer. However, since I drastically cut back how much I thrift, my T-shirt supply has dwindled, and the pajama shirts have started more or less disintegrating.
Not too long ago, someone I've known online for ages asked if I'd like some fabric—left over from her clothing sewing projects—that should be good for doll clothes, and I said Sure, Thanks! The parcel arrived and the generous amount of knit cloth was indeed a good weight for doll clothes. The quantity would have taken me years to sew through if limited only to doll use (and probably had a lot passed on to other doll sewing people—in fact, I just sent two huge boxes of doll appropriate fabric remnants off myself); however, a lot of the pieces were large enough to be able to use for ribbing in person-sized sewing projects, so I sorted out those bigger pieces and put them on the large yardage shelves, then crammed the rest into the small yardage knits drawer.
I realized a few days ago that I just might be able to solve the sleep shirt problem with the larger odds'n'ends of the gift knits.
And I did!
Husband is consistently disappointed by the increasing amount of synthetic fibers in the selection of polo shirts in local stores. I decided to try making a polo shirt, using Simplicity 9994 from 1981
It was an attempt.
Early last year, I made a shirt from the bat print that I used in the patchwork cardigan. Although I declared the shirt Fine in the original post, it turned out not to be so good.
The big issue was that the neckband was cut too long, and it didn't snug the neckline up so it laid nice. Because of that, I stopped wearing the shirt--sadly, because I do like the print.
Handling it in the patchwork project made me decide to revisit that shirt's neckband. I initially thought I'd carefully pick out the stitching and make the existing band shorter before sewing it back in, but I decided I'd rather play it safe and use a proper rib knit.
I buckled down and clipped through the stitching, the top stitching, and the serging, which took much longer than getting the new neckband cut (limited by the width of the rib knit I had), sewn into a loop, mark all the centers, and sewn in place, with top serging and top stitching.
I will say, I hadn't realized it was...so short
I recently visited a different Walmart than usual, and of course I checked the mill end precut rolls. I limited my purchases to one three yard cut of a lovely double border eyelet, and one two yard roll of what seemed to be a sturdy navy cotton knit backed with a soft gray heather knit, which I thought would make a nice hoodie for Husband.
But.
When I opened and unrolled that knit, I discovered that, instead of two knits fused together, it was two pieces. (Expecting two pieces fused is not unreasonable, given other things I've seen and purchased from the mill end precut roll selection in the past.)
And the two pieces were both 24" long, instead of a full yard each. They were 70" wide, so I guess, by area, it's kinda the same.
And also, both pieces had, near a cut edge, the big ugly seams used to join pieces from separate rolls for continuous finishing processes. Which is surely why they ended up in the mill end precuts, but that didn't alleviate any of the disappointment.
The navy blue cotton turned out to be a technical fabric, which I might have a use for. But, the gray? In such a short length, with the seam making the contiguous usable area even shorter? Well...I was so irritated with it that I decided I needed to use it immediately.
(returning was not an option because I didn't want to be That Person walking in with two raggedly cut pieces of fabric and trying to explain that the label promised something different, so gimme back those $3.)
Because the length was so short, I decided to make a shirt for me (the kiddo is a lanky noodle.) I started with KwikSew 1650, cutting the front and back from that, and using some of the precious remaining spiderweb knit to make contrast sleeves.
After getting the neckband sewn, I realized that I absolutely would not ever wear the soft flowing cropped sweatshirt that it would be if I continued. So: New Look 6068 to make the torso more closely cut and the shoulders narrower, then use the adapted KwikSew 303 sleeve to squeeze out some tiny short sleeves, with the length limited by working with what was above the join seam, and add some contrast bits to eke out a bit more length.
It still seemed like it was going to be a bit bland, so...snail.
After making the dress from the thrifted English chintz print cotton interlock, I had enough left to make a shirt. I mixed aspects of views A, B, and C/D from New Look 6068 plus the sleeves from KwikSew 303 and ended up here
This time it used two fabrics from the last visit to the craft thrift store: an innocuous rib knit and an "I never would have worn anything even remotely like this back then" 1990s sweatshirt fleece, and I combined them both with McCall's 5070, an "I wouldn't've worn this back then, either" 1987 raglan sleeve sweatshirt pattern.
...and I'm honestly not sure if I'll wear it now, either
After cutting the previous project, there was a large(ish) piece of fabric left that was just enough to eke out a little T-shirt for me.
So, last time I went to the craft thrift store, I grabbed a few yards of a bright pink knit, figuring I could make a few shirts from it. Fabric there is sold per pound, so it wasn't measured, and I could tell there was a lot there so I didn't unfold it, either. Cue the feeling of BETRAYAL when I got home and discovered it was not contiguous yardage, but, instead, five two-yard strips of roughly 10" wide each.
After accepting that what I had was what I had, I realized I could just...piece the fabric to make it wide enough for the front and back. I considered getting fancy--exposed seams, adding extra seams, more and more piecing, to make it look Designed. I realized, though, that there was still some resentment about the BETRAYAL, and that meant I didn't want to work with the fabric that much. Simple center seams it would be.
I used New Look 6068 with Kwik Sew 303's sleeves again. I finally traced 303's sleeve pattern, to keep with 6068, too. The "rough" part of "roughly 10" wide" meant there were areas wide enough to cut sleeves as one piece, in both long and short lengths. I also went with one scoop neck and one crew neck.
This is what I cut first, then used the remnants from it to cut the shirt sewn first, blogged in the previous post. That project proved that the serger wasn't going to immediately break the left needle, so I went ahead and sewed most of this with the serger as well.
I have been cautiously using my serger with one needle since I tried to rectify its propensity to destroy the second needle when it was installed. The serger seemed to be fine with the single needle, so I decided to go ahead and try a project with two needles...not that I had much shirt-appropriate knit fabric left after making all the T-shirts in February.
I finally settled on a heavy knit lace to make into a mock turtleneck for layering purposes. After I cut that out, I looked at the amount of fabric left and decided to see if I could eke a tank top out of it, and that became the project used to test how the serger would behave with the left needle in place.
It behaved just fine! (although I still don't entirely trust it, so didn't run it at full speed.)
The kiddo was bored at a school in-person testing day (he's still doing remote school, so he doesn't have many chances to be bored at school) and drew a very sarcastic picture of Puyo Puyo Carbuncle. I thought the drawing was fantastic so recently copied it onto freezer paper to make a stencil...which ended up not sticking well to this Walmart mill-end precut synthetic fabric, so my copy ended up with Issues. I did consider adding more decoration to obscure it, but decided not to over-complicate things.
I turned to the Puyo Nexus Wiki to reference how to write the various forms of "goo" that Carbuncle says, drew the hiragana really fast, and made another freezer paper stencil...which I tried tacking on with masking tape. The masking tape stuck fine to the slick back of the freezer paper, but not to the fabric, so I ended up holding the paper down with various paint pots. I did a base layer of white paint for both, and used fabric medium, and still made a mess. The kiddo thinks it's funny, and that's all that matters.
I really do plan to sew fewer things this year than I did last year. It's just that...these T-shirts are really easy to sew, and are things I've wanted to make for a while, so I'm riding this T-shirt wave until either the available appropriate fabric--or the T-shirt sewing motivation--gets used up.
And this version of New Look 6068 (again with Kwik Sew 303 sleeves) shows that the definition of appropriate fabric is flexible--no, not switching to overwhelmingly synthetic fabrics, but instead to...scraps!
The Selfish Seamstress had the philosophy of saving your sewing effort for fun things, for things you couldn't go easily buy. I get the idea behind that, absolutely, but I'd say the definition of "easily" is variable enough that this can still qualify as good ol' Selfish Sewing (with good ol' New Look 6068)
