Sunday, September 6, 2015

Girlie T-Shirt Modification

Ha ha! It sounds like a The Big Bang Theory title, but this post is about a very practical and recurrent process to transform one regular t-shirt into a piece of clothing that actually fits us girls better. I love collecting my favourite bands' merch, but too often they do not have the girlie version, so I have to customize it.
I think that the pictures speak for themselves. We must use a jersey neddle in the machine and sew the seam with a very narrow zigzag for elasticity. Next to this stiching, we will make a wide and short zig zag, and we will cut the seam allowance reeeeally close to it. In that way we will have something similar to the job done by sergers, only we have to make it in three steps instead of one.

For the sleeves and bottom hem, we will roll the fabric towands the inside twice (1.5 cm each turn), and we'll machine-stitch it with a jersey double needle.


Finally, we'll remove the original t-shirt's neck and sew it again in place but in a deeper cut line. We will place the neck elastic band in the inside, under the folded neckline. We will machine stitch it with the double needle too.

And do not forget the ironing in every step.
This procedure is the same I use to adjust my boy's t-shirts when they are too big, minus the neck adjustment.


Black and White Outfit

My last two projects go so well together that I decided to make an official outfit out of it, but in fact they are different in every sense.
The fabric for these capri pants has been in my little stash for a couple of years waiting for its turn. It is a cotton sateen with some elasticity that I bought in one of our trips to Leeds, in the city market. Suddenly I realized I did not have any capri pants and I think they are wonderful for summer, spring and early fall. I love how capri pants make our shoes more visible and sexy.
I used my own pattern for these, pants' fitting being too delicate to be toying around with new experiments. Since this was elastic fabric and I wanted a tight result, I took a couple of cm off in both sides of the pattern, from the crotch downwards. It resulted too much at the first fitting and I had to adjust and try, adjust and try for A LOT of times before I got the perfect fit. I also took 2cm (x4) off the waist of the pants to make them really tight. 
After so much trial and error, I could not even record the new pattern, because every fabric has its own give into it, and I will have to adjust the basic pattern in future projects as I did with this.

I discovered the double needle for the self bound seams I always make in pants, and I made a very good job with the zipper construction following Armstrong's instructions.
The result is almost perfect,maybe a little too tight in the waist department. I cannot gain another gram if I want to wear them comfortably, hehe...



As for the top, I used some remaining viscose from a previous project, but the fabric was scarce, so I had to include a seam in the centre back. After sewing it at the machine, I realized (my boyfriend did, in fact) that the stripes were not well-matched and it was almost impossible to undo the stitching, so I decided to take it to the haberdashery to have some metal eyes installed, and pass a black ribbon to try to hide my mistake. It is also a nice detail enhancing the top, I am really happy with it. 
 


Again, I used the double needle for the seams around the neck and armholes, which are rolled in themselves 1 cm. This ending in fabulous because it looks nice, it is quick, and it has elasticity like the fabric.