SciShirt

The last craft thrift store visit found a Michael Miller print called STEM Squad, which I immediately grabbed with The Child in mind.  The Child approved, and I planned to make another McCall's 6613...eventually.

I decided now was the time, and The Child requested that it not be a full button up shirt.  I think I managed to convey the fact that I could not make a regular ol' T-shirt from this fabric, but said I could make something like the Shrek print shirt I made six years ago (and which was recently banished from the house because Shrek is just not considered funny anymore.  I sent the shirt to a friend who has an online presence based in that kind of kitsch.)  That form factor was deemed acceptable, and I finished it today.

 

It was, appropriately, experimental.

Sheer & White

After cutting the pieces for the previous shirt, there was still a decent amount of fabric left, so I decided to see if I could eke out a short sleeve version of the same kind of shirt.

Yes, I could.

 

Sheer & Black

One of the fabrics I got in that Fabric Mart order was a low price nylon point d'espirit netting.  Something about the grungy dark olive ground, with pink-accented white flowers outlined in black, made me think it needed to be a peasant-style blouse, to layer under jumpers when the weather warms up.

Now, while the existence of (most of) these jumpers still remains theoretical, the shirt is a reality.

 

Big Floral Shirt

I thrifted Simplicity 8042, from 1992, several years ago, because it's just so ridiculous.

I very probably would have worn it in 1992--well, view 1 or 3.  View 2's collar is a bit too...Knock Off Laura Ashley Romantic to align with my tastes.

I got the pattern as a curiosity, never thinking I'd actually make it, in part because it requires a lot of fabric--over three yards of 60" for view 1.  And it needed to be soft, flowing fabric, too.

It turns out, though, that I just needed to take a new look at a piece of fabric that I thrifted in 2017.  It's a large floral print, a lightweight plain weave rayon, in purples and pinks and greens on an ivory ground, over 4 yards of 60" wide, that I had, for years, been looking at and thinking "This would make a lovely flowing dress but I would never wear such a thing, because the pale ground means that every bit of my underwear would show right through."  I never thought of getting rid of it, though, because the print was just so, to be cliché, me.

And then things clicked and I made it into view 1 of this shirt.

And it is, indeed, ridiculous.

From Out of the Lace Stash

 Once upon a time, I managed to be in a Walmart at the right time to get a mill end precut of some white cotton swiss dot.  I figured it would eventually become a shirt (or two), but there were no clear plans.   I picked up Simplicity 7233, with eyes on view 2, a bit over a year ago at the craft thrift store, but it took a while to connect the cloth with the potential of the pattern.

Then I put the pattern in the "To Do, Maybe" box and ignored it for months.

And while I have very much been having fun recently making girlie print menswear shapes, or tweedy skirts, I decided I'd go ahead and make this shirt--which involved raiding my lace and trim stash for suitable froufrouness

When I say froufrou, I mean froufrou

Shirt Runner-up

And then there was enough fabric left to make a short sleeve shirt, too!

Shirt Choice

I had some fabric that I had bought as a clearance bolt--I thought it was something I got when the local Hancock Fabrics went out of business in 2007, but it's not in my photos from then.  I did use some of it in a project photographed in 2013, but, beyond that, all I really know is that I'd had it for a long time, and I originally had a lot of it.

I recently decided it would be good for a shirt.  But...long sleeve or short sleeve?

I decided on long sleeve, grabbed McCall's 6613, and got to work.

Disappointing Fruit Shirt

 I got a piece of printed cotton, from the craft thrift store last year, that I wanted to make into a shirt.  I just finished finally making that, using the modified Burda 7831, which, at this point, I can assemble fairly quickly.

I was delighted to find that the print repeat was designed so that the motifs near the selvedge edges fit together perfectly with a 5/8" seam, and that meant I could effortlessly pattern match the front bands, which just seemed like it would be such a fun touch.

But.

I was later extremely dismayed to see that, once everything was sewn and overlapped, that meant that my Most Loathed Sewing Thing happened: the pattern repeated directly next to itself on either side of the seam/opening, and there was nothing I could do about it

I don't say this lightly, but...😭

Pastel Pipers

 Years ago, I thrifted an amazing piece of yardage: silk, with a stylized pastel print, on a black ground, featuring flowers birds, castles, and bagpipers.

There were a few print flaws--which probably meant that whoever bought it initially, then donated it, had probably gotten it for a good price...probably a price that convinced them to buy it, even though they knew they'd probably never use it. (It's fun to make up stories about thrifted items.)

And it sat in my stash for a long time, treasured, but no clear idea for use.  Until!   I finally decided that view B of McCall's 5675, with the big bow option, would probably be just right.

And it was!

Playtime Brights Revisited

 Just over a year ago, I made a shirt with a vintage pattern I'd used about nine years before.

When I first finished the shirt, I was so distracted by the way my overall sewing improvements, in the nearly-decade since making it before, meant that was now aware of how much the pattern itself is...not the most advanced.  And that distracted me from noticing how the bust darts were way too high.

I put the shirt in the sewing room to work on, but I didn't want to calculate how much to lower the darts. Today I finally picked out the darts and the side seam a distance about twice the unfolded end of the darts.  I gathered the front to fit the back, fiddled around with attempting to press out at least some of the fullness, then sewed everything back together.

I wasn't able to shrink out all of the fullness, so some gathers did get stitched in place

It's far from perfect, but that applies to the whole shirt,and, as always: it's fine/nobody better get close enough to notice.

 

Fluffy Layer

 Someday I will make McCall's 5675 from 1977 in a way the pattern wants

 

 but this isn't quite it.

Craft Thrift Camisole

 The previous post, showing what I got from last Sunday's visit to the creative re-use thrift store, included a small length of a lightweight light green woven (which the burn test suggested might be a cotton silk blend?  maybe short staple noil-y kinda silk?) and a copy of Simplicity 8085 from 1987

which I did not purchase with intent to use together, but the combination suggested itself very quickly.  Having thread and buttons that matched (somewhat) prompted me to go ahead and try it.

I did not have any suitable lace, and I ignored other aspects of the instructions, too.  As I usually do.

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

Another combo

 

Shirt

Vest

Skirt

Haunted House Renovation

 So.

In 2015, I made a dress with a strip of Halloween print patchwork in the skirt.

And it was too small, so I didn't wear it.

In 2016, I made a shirt from a Halloween print.

And it was so roomy that I never wore it.

In 2020, I merged them into a single dress.

And I never wore that, either.

Finally*, yesterday, I picked things apart and converted the former dress's skirt into the standalone skirt I should have made to begin with

I used the same fabric and method as in the previous skirt restorations.

Unlike those, though, I did decide to salvage the shirt/bodice.

Ties Dyes

 No, I didn't do the tie dying--I used tie dyed shirt parts that were in the things the friend brought from the relative's stash (thanks!)  There were several tie dyed shirts that had areas cut out, probably interesting graphics to use for other projects, leaving 90% of a (seemingly) usable shirt, so I decided to combine things back into a single loud shirt for the kiddo.

 

Sweet Shirt

 Several years ago, my doll friend John in Australia sent a parcel that included about a meter of a Japanese sweets print.  He had used a bit for doll clothes, and I probably will use the leftover pieces for doll clothes, but, in the meantime, I made this

Save the Cat

I thought I'd take a break from sewing buttoned shirts and sew a quick woven pullover shirt.  I cut the tissue for Simplicity 2211, the Lisette Market pattern

 The pattern cutting layout showed size 12 of the blouse folding the selvedges to the center and cutting the front and back on the fold that way.  Since I cut as much as I can on a large narrow piece of cardboard on top of my ironing board (yes, the narrow area can be irritating, but it's better than floundering around on the floor), I decided I'd fold the selvedges to the center and cut the pieces one at a time.

I cut the front first and transferred all the marks for the darts, then folded the other selvedge to the center and placed the back pattern piece and 

oh

it didn't fit?

After a few minutes of wondering if I had somehow folded things incorrectly, I thought to measure the fabric width.

It's a yard of very nice, surprisingly shirt weight Halloween print I got from JoAnn in 2017

so I was shocked to discover it was only 40" wide.

Did it shrink that much when I washed it? In only one direction?

Did it matter at that point?

So I considered my options.  The obvious was to add a contrast strip of fabric in the center back and proceed from there.  I can't explain why, but I absolutely did not want to do that.

I thought of cutting a new back from the already-cut front, and creating a button front with contrast areas, eventually remembering good ol' New Look 6217.  I made so many shirts from that pattern in the early 2000s--even though it was cut in a now-too-small size, I kept it when I purged patterns when I gained weight.  Now, I have lost weight, but not enough to put me in my early 2000s size, so I decided to combine the two-part front aspect of New Look 6217 with my current basic shirt pattern, the modified Burda 7831

I settled on adding a contrast asymmetrically, and making the collar and (hidden) front bands from the contrast print.  I poked through my stash and settled on a tiny floral stretch poplin, then started cutting quickly before I could second guess myself and here we are

Playtime Brights

 I thrifted this cloth at the end of 2015

And for years had wanted to use it to make vintage Simplicity 1692

Which I had previously made, once, before starting this blog.  I remembered it as being easy, so I thought it would be a good project after the last shirt I made.

And it was! despite some...decisions. 

Red Vines

 I decided to go all-in on a Proper button up shirt, using McCall's 6613 (currently available as Butterick 6841)

I proceeded to ignore every single thing written in the directions, so maybe it wasn't as "all-in" as it could have been.