Sewing Orgy: Pieced tee shirt

Sometimes right before I go back to Houston to work, I indulge in a two or three day sewing orgy. This is not something that I plan; it just happens. I make a whole lot of clothes in a few days.

Yesterday I finished a vest; today I made a tee shirt. I had a lot of scraps of knits left over from other tee shirt projects. Some of these tees that I made last year didn't work out too well: they were too tight under the arms mainly. (It was a surplice tee pattern, and those are more fitted so that your boobs won't jump out.) The fabric was cotton knit that I had bought plain white from Dharma Trading and dyed. Also I did some bleach discharge and fabric paint stamping on it.

To make the shirt, I used a Kwik Sew tee shirt pattern from a Kwik Sew book. It's called Easy Sewing the Kwik Sew Way, and it's the first edition, not the second. The tees in the first edition are the boxy, eighties style tees that I like because they are so comfortable.

I altered the pattern a bit by narrowing the shoulders and shortening the sleeves, as I always do for every pattern.

Then I used a technique I had learned from making a Marcy Tilton pattern. In one of her tee shirt patterns, the front is pieced from two pieces of knit fabric zigzagged together in a sort of curve down the front of the shirt. The same is true of the back. You just overlap the pieces and zigzag the overlap, leaving a raw edge. It looks great and it doesn't ravel. Hurray for knits!

I had a lot of small pieces of fabric, none big enough to cut half of one side of the front or back, so I pieced smaller pieces together until I had a piece big enough to cut out one side of the front. I cut it so that there was about three inches extra of fabric added in the center of the shirt. Then I did the same to make the other side of the front. Then I overlapped the two pieces, drew a curvy line down the center, and zigzagged that line. Then I cut away the extra fabric outside the lines. I may not be explaining that very well, but here's a picture:



You can sort of see the chalk line where I marked the center front, in order to line it up with the other center front. You can also see that I left some fabric outside that center front line, to overlap the other piece.

HEre's the back:



The tee shirt is as comfortable as I had hoped it would be.

Those surplice tees that I took apart to make this tee were flattering, but not comfortable, and I was always worried that when I leaned over, a boob would hop out or be visible. Not good at work.

I think this piecing technique would work for my favorite tank top pattern too. I still have a lot of knit scraps yet, but I'm not sure I have time to make any more clothes before I leave tomorrow.