Laundry Day Tee. Or Not.

Yes, I'm actually posting twice in the same month. I'll wait while you get off the floor.

So apparently one of the best ways to kickstart a missing sewjo is to write a blog post about how little desire you have to sew. And in a similar vein, when in that same blogpost you lament about not liking any fabric choices you've seen lately … well, you know where that's going. Yep. A few yards may have jumped into my shopping cart during Fabricmart's latest Pyramid sale. And then possibly a few more a week later during the Knits sale.

That's all good news. But I am not without hiccups and speed bumps in this story.

Let's begin.

First, last year I had bought a crap-ton of patterns during one of the BMV all-brands sales. My order arrived. I ooohed. I ahhed. I made plans. I bought fabric. I dreamed. I put the patterns … well, that's just it. I have NO IDEA where I put those patterns (or a few others) and I've been looking for them on/off for MONTHS. My house is not big. I'm fairly organized. I cannot solve this mystery. I give up. I've decided I'll repurchase some of them during the next BMV all-brand sale. (And then I'll find the missing stack.)

So I moved on for the time being. While I may not have been sewing myself these past months, I still have been reading sewing blogs and websites and checking into Facebook sewing/pattern groups regularly. I've seen more than a few Love Notions Laundry Day Tees made up and modeled, with lots of raving about the pattern. Being the lemming that I am, or maybe because it was free when you join the LN Facebook group, I downloaded the PDF and printed it last week, with plans to use some of the newly acquired Fabricmart yardage.

Yesterday, I got the pattern out to tape the sheets together, which I did. I know it's free and all, but I wasn't extremely impressed, starting with the fact the PDF is supposed to be "trimless." This means you don't need to slice off unprinted page margins to accurately join the pages into one cohesive layout. I found I still needed to trim. Not a big deal. I'm used to it. I'm not ready to blame Love Notions on this yet because I haven't double-checked my printer settings (and I'm not sure I will spend time to do so), but do be warned in case it's a legit problem.

What really bugged me was the pattern itself. See below.

First, the front and back aren't separate pieces. If you're away from your printer when you realize this and can't print a quick duplicate, it means you have to trace or tape the jigsaw puzzle back together. It also means you're going to be ticked off. I absolutely do not see the point in this (the print layout, not the being ticked off). Well, OK, there is a slight point if you're printing to a commercial print house's large format printer and paying by the sheet, but even then, give us the option of more sheets with the other half of the damn pattern so we can decide for ourselves which pages to print.

Next, it should be obvious that if the front and back pieces are identical,  except for necklines, there's a good chance it won't fit a curvy body. Pretty sure my front and back aren't anywhere close to identical. I won't even talk about the sleeve being cut on the fold. Guess it's a good thing after all that I didn't do all that "extra" printing. ;-) I'm not truly knocking this pattern because (1) I haven't actually sewn it and (2) it does get lots of love and I have seen some very nice finished tees. But I did conclude it wasn't for me and the symmetrical drafting makes me hesitant to try a paid-for LN pattern.

Side note on the LDT - Does anyone understand what the heck is meant by this? It totally does not make sense.

I decided what I was really after was the overall trapeze shape of the LDT and looked for my Cashmerette Concord pattern to just do that simple hack. Apparently my paper version of the Concord is with the other missing patterns mentioned above. Grrr, that MIA list just keeps getting longer. But I knew I also had a PDF version (from testing) that was already trimmed and ready to tape, and I was able to locate that one. Except … I was missing at least 6 of the pages. Six pages that would fall right across the bodice. I have no idea how that happened. Apparently, I'm getting old and senile. Missing patterns. Missing pattern pages. Missing brain.

Instead of giving up, I reached for my so very trusty TNT, the Ottobre Woman tee from the 02/2007 issue (cover below) and added the flare and length of the LDT.

And then I cut it out of this, with enough left for a matching skirt cuz I love me some 2-piece dresses. Yes, I know it's only a skirt and a top. I just like saying 2-piece dress. It sounds fancier. Humor me. :-)

And then I was done "sewing" for the day.

I've made a deal with myself to spend at least 15 minutes a weekday on this until it's done. I think I'll stick with it because I'm excited about the print placement for this one and want to see it finished. If I had started with the Ottobre, I'd be done by now. I hope I learned that lesson.

Kwik Sew 3873 and Cashmerette Concord Mash-Up: Reveal

I took this past Thursday and Friday off with big plans to sew for 4 days. Well, all I managed to finish was my mash-up of Kwik Sew 3873 with a Cashmerette Concord Tee bodice, but I'm happy with my new dress so it's a win. The weather was just too nice on Saturday to stay inside all day but the biggest speed bump was my second thoughts about all these prints together, resulting in a bad case of analysis paralysis.

Cutting went very quickly, especially considering how many pieces there are. Since I was using 3 different fabrics and most pattern pieces were able to be "nested," I still have plenty left of each print for future projects.

I had the print mix in my mind before I started, but once I had everything cut out, I started second-guessing myself and visualizing Mrs. Frizzle. I ended up staring at it all on my cutting table for about a day before I finally decided to just do it. Once I actually started, the sewing went fast. The Kwik Sew pieces for the skirt curvy sections have notches that line up perfectly, making alignment and construction very straightforward. And since I morphed the already-tested Cashmerette Concord Tee for the bodice section, fitting alterations were eliminated.

With the bodice and skirt sections stitched, it was time for some more navel gazing. I had initially cut out sleeves from the same print as the bodice but then thought maybe I wanted contrasting sleeves. I put out a call for an informal poll on Instagram and the opinions were about equal for both options.

I decided the matching sleeves were a little less Crazytown and since I already had them cut out, they won. I'm happy with that decision. A contrast neckband finished up the print mixing.

I shortened the sleeves about 2-1/2 inches compared to the KS pattern (not the Concord sleeve) because while I wanted to try the longer short sleeve length, I decided it was too frumpy on me. After the first full try-on, I also shortened the back bodice 1 inch at the center graduating to 0 at the side seams. This was more to fine-tune the morph of the Concord in lieu of a real muslin. It also meant frog-stitching the back waist seam, but since I hadn't serged that seam, it was fairly painless.

Finally, since I have to carry a key card at work and without pockets I have nowhere to hang it, I added a loop at the front right waist seam for clipping the card onto it. I have to say that I LOVE this feature. Dorky, but so useful!

All of the mirror pics show how I wore this dress to work today, including my key card. It's the end of the day so I'm a little wilted but life is life. I'm never going to win for most beautiful blog pics. Hah.

And one more just because. The bottom "hem" isn't really. I just left the cut edge raw. After wearing all day, I think it probably grew a little too long and I may go ahead and hem it at some point when I want to veg with Netflix and pin a million pins on a very wide skirt hem. In other words, don't anyone hold their breath on that one. :-)

Final verdict: I love the dress! It fits nicely, thanks to the Concord bodice (by the way, if you're busty/curvy, go get this tee now! I am not affiliated, yada yada ... just really happy with the pattern). The dress skims lumps and bumps,and the twirl/swish factor is awesome. I even like the print mix again. It feels summery and fun. I'll definitely be visiting this pattern morph again, just in a more subdued way. I think I'd like it as a skirt too.

Parting shot: My Mother's Day gift from Alex ... New ceramic pots and colorful crotons to put in them. I love them!

Cashmerette Concord Tee - The Reveal and Review

I'm done. Tee shirts used to take me a 2-3 hours. Now, it seems, they take weeks. Hmmm. :-)

It's not the pattern that's the problem here. The Cashmerette Concord pattern is really great. I just started to dislike the fabric and had to force myself to keep at it. Now that it's done, I like it again. I just hated sewing with it. It's a thin rayon/lycra knit and it wanted to wiggle all over the place. At some point early on, once I declared this a "wearable muslin," I pretty much just gave up on stripe matching. If it happened, yay. If not, I wasn't going to care. I see a few spots in the pics that could be better but I still just don't care. This is a casual tee. No one in real life will even notice. It's fine. I just point out these things for other sewists, to keep it real. In actual life, nope.

So, as you can see, I used 3 different fabrics for the tee. Had I known how much I hated sewing with this fabric, it would be a b/w-only striped tee. :-) But I soldiered on, and here's a crappy cellphone-pointed-at-the-mirror pic.

And another cell pic from during the process when I was gauging the neckline width. (Did you notice the cool-geeky dinosaur necklace?) If you remember, I had some concerns last post about the open-ness of the neckline since I'm a bit narrow-shouldered. To compensate, I cut a 14 for the neck/shoulders. This is 2 sizes smaller than my size per the instructions (using my full bust measurement). It worked well. In the photo below, the neckband isn't attached and my bra straps are only just visible. Meaning, with the neckband, I'd have full coverage. Jenny (from Cashmerette) confirmed the neckline is "pretty open." My conclusion, it's a nice width but definitely go narrower if you have narrow shoulders. Or, cut a wider neckband. :-)

Close-up of neckband, sewn on with the sewing machine, and then coverstitched. I used the pattern piece for the neckband and I was a little concerned that it was going to take a ton of stretching to get it to fit the neck opening. It did but it also worked absolutely fine for this fabric. Still, I think I'm going to add a wee bit of length for poly knits such as ITYs. I have a really good feel for neckbands at this point in my sewing so it's one of those "I'll know it when I see feel it" kind of things. :-)

I also added the contrast band to the sleeve hems. (I like things in odd numbers, especially threes.) Although I cut the shortest sleeves in the pattern with a hem allowance (I didn't know I was going to use bands), I trimmed it off before attaching the bands. I like the finished length of the sleeves. The width is also good for me. I don't have skinny biceps but they aren't particularly meaty in proportion to the rest of me.

I color blocked the back as well as the front. I whacked at the pattern visually (meaning without measurements) so the back yoke length has no relation to the front. I was more interested in pleasing proportions viewing head on vs. how the two met around my armpit. The back yoke joining seam is one of those places where things could be more even. But it's my back. I just don't care.

I started with the shortest length and then proceeded to add 2 inches to it. And, yes, you guessed it …it's about 2 inches too long. I know it technically looks OK but 2 inches up is better on me. Since this is rayon, I'm going to see if a trip or two through the laundry takes care of things. This thin rayon does tend to like to keep shrinking a bit.

So, what I haven't specifically mentioned yet but I think is obvious from the photos is how well this tee fits me and the girls. The pattern is divided into C/D, E/F, and G/H cup sizes. I used the E/F as instructed because it was closer to my waist measurement. Yes, I said waist. It's an hourglass v. apple kind of thing, I'm guessing. I think the neckline options are nice. My only criticism on the necklines is the finish for the vee. It's more of a "scrubs" neckband, which I think is eh. I'm sure it's aimed at beginners, but I don't necessarily agree with "dumbing down" a tee pattern. But if I had been an actual tester as I initially agreed, maybe I could've changed some minds. We'll never know. :-) As for differing sleeve and hem lengths, these aren't really aimed at me since I can easily make those adjustments. For those who like to have it all in the package, it's good to have so no complaint there.

You may be thinking it's difficult to get excited about a tee pattern which costs $14/$18, but if you're a curvy lady who hasn't found tee nirvana in any other pattern, I say go for it. It will pay off in the long run. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I love my Ottobre TNT. Well, that Ottobre magazine was probably in the $12-$15 range and I've made SO MANY variations on that tee that the cost of the magazine isn't even a factor anymore. (Yes, I know there are multiple patterns in the magazine but I didn't sew them.)

Don't tell my Ottobre bestie, but I think this Concord even fits me a little better. I like it enough that I'm subbing it into the bodice for the Kwik Sew dress pattern I showed last post.

In the works and on deck

(Can you believe it? TWO posts from me in the same week!)

So it's Spring here in Tampa. For about another minute until it's All Summer-All Humid-All The Time … for months. And I'm ready for some new clothes.

First up, is the new Cashmerette Concord tee. This should have been a very quick sew over this past weekend. To be fair, it IS a quick sew. It just wasn't a quick decision on sizing so actually starting took some time. And let's not mention Netflix sucking me in.

In-Progress Concord

I was originally to be a tester but my sewing is so scarce and scattered these days that I pretty much just wussed out. Jenny very kindly sent me a paper pattern anyway. I'm a bad tester. But I am an honest reviewer, so maybe it will all work out?

Concord back pattern with curves!

With the paper pattern in hand, it meant I had to trace. It also meant I had to "sacrifice" some old never-used costume pattern so I had tracing paper to use, or something resembling it. (I know I have actual pattern tracing paper but I have no idea where it ended up after the move last July.) Tracing isn't a big deal. I have to be honest, though, and say I actually prefer PDFs just because I don't have to trace and I can just print another if I mess up.

So back to the sizing conundrum. I tend to run a little bit narrow in the shoulders and from the Concords I'd been seeing on blogs and Instagram, it looked to me like the neckline runs wide. After cutting and partially sewing, I agree with myself that it does have a wide-set neck opening. In the pic above, the neckband isn't yet sewn on (and in real life it's not even cut out), so the neck opening looks even wider than it will when finished.

Although my B-W-H measurements would put me in the 18-20 range, I started with the E/F cup and traced at 14 for the neckline and shoulders, gradually increasing to 16 at underarm/bust level, and then out to 20+ for hips/bum.

So far, everything is going great. Except my fiddly fabric. I thought I would do some colorblocking, and as you can see, I did. But I'm probably going to be sorry. This rayon knit is very flimsy and there is definite rippling where the two colors come together. I'm pretty sure that the neckband stitching will be meh too. So, I'm dubbing this a wearable muslin and we'll see how it goes.

The pattern itself is very nice. It's nothing earth-shattering for me because I now have years of fitting/altering experience (and a few TNT tees), but I can see that it's going to be a good fit (pun intended) for busty/curvy ladies who don't want to roll their own (paying homage to 4/20 today hahaha!). It should be very easy to get a great tee with a more modern fit than most other commercial tee patterns right out of the envelope. Just heed the possibility of a wide neckline. Oh, and maybe slim sleeves. They looked on the smaller side to me as I was tracing/cutting but I'm withholding final judgment since I haven't actually sewed up the sideseams/sleeves and tried it on yet.

The instructions look comprehensive and I love the 3/8" seam allowances. At the larger end of the plus pattern spectrum, that 3/8" seam allowance can make a real difference in pattern layout on fabric. Plus, it's just so much easier to sew and serge with a 3/8" SA. Jenny also says that there's a slight forward shoulder adjustment built-in. (This doesn't help me, of the erect posture brigade, but it might be of interest to you?)

I'm hoping to finish this up tonight and tomorrow night after work so I can then start on …

… Kwik Sew 3873. And yes, they still don't have the best illustrations/photos. But at least you can see the seamlines and I think it's going to be a fun summer dress with mix/match prints.The sleeves definitely need some de-frumping and KS has always run big in the armhole for me. If the Concord trial above is a win, I may just morph the two together (or if not, use my TNT).

Stay tuned. I promise I'll be back soon with an update on both.