Staycation Tees

It has been a heck of a month.  Things finally calmed down a bit, and I really needed to recharge. I decided to take a 3-day staycation. Though I had to do a little bit of work from home yesterday, I managed to stay focused on sewing! I've been craving for some sewing time!

Yes, a red t-shirt! It's Butterick 5354 pattern that I purchased back in March. With the RTW fasting, I am in need of making the basics. With the summer approaching, I need some new t-shirts!

View C is what I made. The fabric is a cotton/poly light/medium weight knit. It was a remnant someone gave me a while back. There was just enough for one t-shirt. Hey, it's virtually a free t-shirt.

I love the neckline. I love the walking foot. (Have I said that before?!)  It's like night and day. No more struggling with any type of fabric. You just had to have the right kind of tools, I learned.

The back neckline. This was a happy accident.  The neckline seam is supposed to be folded toward the inside of the shirt. When I had the front and the back of the t-shirt put together, I made a mistake! I had the wrong side of the back on the outside!  But I rather like the effect. On this fabric, you can hardly tell the right side from the wrong side. So, I decided to leave it as is. I'm happy with the result.

The sleeve set in nicely.

I just don't have any photos of me wearing it yet.

Here is the t-shirt #2.

It's Maria Denmark's 101 Kirsten Kimono Tee. This fantastic free pattern is downloadable from her site. A fellow RTW faster told me about it when we had a meet-up at the Puyallup Sewing Expo.  I cut the small, but used the extra small neckline for the front since I like a little more scoop on the neckline.

This fabric was also a gift/donation. A neighbor was moving and downsizing. She gave me a whole bunch of fabrics from her stash. (I mean a WHOLE BUNCH, like 5 large trash bagful!! Mostly high quality wool! Well, that's another blog post.) In it, there was this light weight, very stretchy and good quality knit remnant. I love this blue-gray color. There wasn't even a yard of it left, so I couldn't cut both front and back in one piece. I had to cut the front in two separate pieces. I meant to do some embellishment along the front line where I sewed the two front pieces together.

However, I ended up deciding to do the embellishment around the neckline instead.  I pinned the black lace around the neckline to see how it would look. I liked it. It reminded me of one of my favorite t-shirts I have. It's an Ann Taylor t-shirt which has a little lace embellishment along the neckline with the raw edge left exposed.  I decided that I'd like to do something similar.

Here is the finished neckline. I just sewed the lace along the neckline, leaving the inside raw edge alone which flips up and does a little peed-a-boo.

I love it.

The front middle where I had to sew the two pieces together is almost invisible.

This t-shirt was put together so fast. I love the design, I love the simple elegance.  I will definitely make it again. This t-shirt is so clean and simple that it's perfect for playing with little embellishment. The shirt just tickles your creativity.  I think I will also check out other patterns by Maria Denmark.

The actual color of the fabric is a little darker than it appears in the photos.

Tomorrow is my day three and the last day of Staycation.  I'd like to make at least one more something. Ok, so far, two free t-shirts made from someone's unwanted remnants. That's the spirit of Urban Recyclist, right?!