The Not-So-Humble T-Shirt(s) & Out-takes!

24 June 2016

This is the garment which returned my sewing mojo to me! A humble t-shirt!

Renfrew T-shirt by Sewaholic Patterns

It wasn’t that I wasn’t sewing anything at all, after all, I make a lot of bellydance tops for others and I was very slowly making the odd thing for myself which I might wear once in a blue moon. But I realised that I hadn’t sewn anything for myself that I could wear regularly, any day of the week. I also realised I was short on simple, short sleeved t-shirts. Aha! I wear t-shirts every day, so why not make myself a t-shirt!

Feeling rather proud of myself!

So I dug out some pretty boring coloured (I think) stretch fabric I bought very cheaply at a sort of jumble warehouse type place a bit out of town a few years ago. It was either 50p or £1 a metre so I bought everything they had, I mean, it would have been rude not to! Then I realised I’d already bought a PDF pattern for a t-shirt from independent pattern company Sewaholic. The Renfrew t-shirt pattern has three different sleeve lengths and 3 different necklines – perfect!

Do you like these sunglasses?

I actually really enjoyed taping the PDF pattern pieces together! I know some people hate doing it, but I found it quite therapeutic somehow!

I love the way you don’t have to finish the hems on this pattern because the hem, sleeve hems and neckline are all bound by bands. It also fitted really well. I measured myself and determined I needed to grade out one size at the hips and that worked perfectly.

Also, can I just say how impressed I was with the accuracy of the notches and the way all the pieces just fitted together perfectly. So much better than patterns from the commercial companies, as I’ve found their notches NEVER match up.

Another photo of the Renfrew t-shirt

Oh I guess I should apologise for the crinkles in my t-shirt, but you see I had to dig it out of the washing basket! Since I’ve made it, it’s either in the washing basket, being washed, or being worn!

And of course here’s the usual flip the hair up pose!

Hair flipping fun!

But wait! It doesn’t stop there! For those eagle eyed amongst you, you will have noticed the title of this post was referring to t-shirts, plural. After making this t-shirt I just had to make a “proper” one! So off to FabricLand I went. I picked up quite a few t-shirt fabrics but so far I’ve only made up one of them – and here it is!

Feather print Renfrew t-shirt

I was more careful with the neckline on this one because I’d stretched the previous one very slightly. Well, that sort of backfired because this one ended up even baggier! Oh well, it’s still far better than the last RTW (Ready To Wear) t-shirt I bought!