Details: The Red Shirt

It’s a good (although slightly stressful) problem to have when your sewing outpaces your blogging.  Maybe it’s all these snow days, but I feel like the sewing has been flowing, if you know what I mean.  I want to get some quality pictures before I show you some of the latest projects, but I do have pictures of the finally finished red t-shirt!  Remember it in its original form?  Or maybe you remember what it looked like after going through the wash?  If not, I’ll give you the quick recap here:

The first version of the shirt with beaded collar

To survive in this household, most garments have to be able to make it through the washer at a bare minimum.  The dryer is negotiable.  So, it was with fingers crossed that I threw this one in the washer and dryer.

The trim didn’t make it through the washer.   😦

After consulting the experts (my mother and grandmother), I took the trim off.  I looked for more in the fabric store (so many good rhyming phrases today!), but nothing had the same pizzazz as my beading.  I could have tried beading it myself or something, but that sounded like a lot of work for a t-shirt of questionable fabric quality.  So in the end, I cut some strips of t-shirt fabric and bound the edge using a zig-zag stitch.

My first try wasn’t awesome…

 

The zig-zag was so wide it looked homemade in the worst way.  So, I ripped it out again and tried one more time.

(Wow.  I can’t believe I just typed that.  Usually I would just ignore this kind of mistake and wear it as it is.  I must be…getting better!  Oh, my goodness!  I’m becoming better at sewing!  I hope this doesn’t mean I’m responsible for fixing EVERY mistake.  You have to have some boundaries.)

The third try was the ticket.  I like this finish so much better.

The back has that little sewing line that both covers the join in the binding and acts as a tag so you know which side is the back.  Clever, huh?  I didn’t even plan it.  I just decided that it was supposed to be that way after I had done it.  That happens a lot in art, too, by the way.  Just in case you ever wondered…

I sewed a little seam at the front to make it look v-ish.  Now it kind of makes me think of this old GAP t-shirt I used to have that had a rough-stitched look to it.  That was a great shirt.  Its spirit lives on.

I’m so happy to have a wearable shirt.  I needed a few good t-shirts with some small, interesting details to form the base of my winter fashion ensembles.  😉  If anyone has an awesome boat/bateau neck pattern that they love, please leave it in the comments.  I’ve been contemplating that in black for occasions when I want to look put together but still wear a t-shirt.

 

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