A Weekend of TNT

I'm always seduced by new patterns and continuously add to my pattern stash, especially when I'm *not* sewing. But the reality is right now with my limited time and energy to sew, TNTs are what I reach for first.

Friday sewing was fast and furious. Thank heaven for my TNT Ottobre Woman tees. The football t-shirts arrived on Thursday, but because I was working late on a presentation due the next day I couldn't begin making it over until Friday.

Fast forward to Friday at 4:30 PM. 90 minutes before we had to leave for the game. I quickly cleared the costume-making scraps off the cutting table, cut apart the men's tee, laid out my TNT pattern, and cut. Most of the construction was done on the serger, which was still sporting the red thread from the costume-making for DS. A fast thread change, a set-in neckband because I had no time to test binding with the CS machine, a bottom hem, and I was done — with 20 minutes to spare. Why can't I sew that fast when I don't have a deadline? I didn't slow down to take a pic and the tee is now in a heap in the laundry basket, but it came out fine, trust me. ;-) I'll try to remember to post a pic after I do laundry. This will be my last football tee makeover since DS graduates this year. And in case you're interested, the Cougars won their homecoming game 21-0, and won this past Friday night too, again 21-0, which puts them at 4-1. So far, so good.

Saturday morning the Ottobre patterns were still strewn about the cutting table, so I decided to make another gathered neckline version while the getting was good. This one took me at least double the time of the football tee, because I was not under a deadline. Go figure.



I'm not sure what the count is now for this pattern, but it's definitely pushing 20 if not above. Nothing fancy on this one, just a pretty brown/ivory print and again, a set-in neckband instead of a binding — which is lost in this photo.

Moving on to Saturday afternoon, a morph between TNT Butterick 5300 and never-used Simplicity 3684.





They are both similar side bust dart, back waist dart blouse patterns. But the Simplicity has a slightly different neckline, a sewn-on placket, and different sleeve options and was the one I wanted to sew. I simply laid the Simplicity bodice pieces over the Butterick bodice pieces and, using the TNT Butterick as my guide, added tissue to the Simplicity where there was none and removed tissue where there shouldn't be any. It's hard to explain properly without pictures, but I didn't take any. Luckily, Robin has been doing the exact same thing and has more detail of the process with photos on her blog, here. Thanks Robin. :-)

I cut out the blouse last night and will sew it today. It's looking a lot like wallpaper at the moment, but I'm hoping that some dark brown accents will break up the print a bit. It was actually a lot worse before I laid the fabric on the bias.



I'm planning to return to jeans sewing next week because while it is still quite warm here, all of a sudden (or so it will seem), we'll start having cool days and I'll be wishing I had some new full-length jeans instead of my standard summer capris. This sit-on-my-butt-all-day-work-at-home job is great for the commute but it's made the fluff fluffier and in different places so I really need some new jeans. Or I need to diet. ;-)