This month's CorpGoth status report is Love What You Do. There are a lot of things I love about my job: it's interesting, it's challenging, I have some great co-workers, and the pay is great. But one of the things I love the most about my job is the lack of dress code. Even the president of the company wears shorts. No one cares that my hair is purple, I'm pierced, or that I have visible tattoos. People might not understand my spooky weirdness and Halloween addiction, but they accept it and admire how I express it with sewing.So for this entry, I've indulged my passion for stripes and made a long-sleeved t-shirt. The fabric is a thin black and orange-striped knit I bought a while ago in a lot of end pieces on eBay. A burn test revealed that I don't know how read the results of a burn test, but I think this is a poly-cotton blend. The pattern is McCall's 4261, in a mix of view A, view B, and my own crazy head. It was harder to find a long-sleeved t-shirt pattern than you'd think. I was resorting to looking at PJ patterns before I remembered I had this one in my (embarrassingly large) pattern stash. And, may I please state that this was probably the most wrinkly, poorly folded pattern I have ever encountered?
The sleeves from view B are only three-quarters, so I used the sleeves from the jacket. I should have redrafted the sleeve from the jacket to fit the armscye of the t-shirt, but they were pretty close to begin with and it's a knit anyway, so I just plunged ahead. I stupidly forgot to lengthen the sleeves (which is stupid because it's my #1 complaint about RTW garments), so I instead lengthened the cuffs. They still aren't as long as I would like, but not too ridiculously short.The collar of the t-shirt is just meant to be stitched under, but I used the leftover rib knit for the cuffs instead. I decided it should be 3/4" (1.9 cm), plus the seam allowance. To arrive at the length, I found the percentage stretch of the cuffs to the sleeve and just applied that to the collar.
The difficulty here is minimal. View B has only four pieces: front, back, and the two sleeves. Sewing knits can be tricky; you have to stretch them a little when you sew (but not too much, as you can see the puckering a bit on the bottom). I was completely fearless when I began sewing, so would sew knits all the time, not knowing it was supposed to be more difficult. So this would probably be a good pattern for a beginner with no fear.
Cute shirt! You're braver than I for sewing knits - I've never had success. This turned out great. Thanks for sharing your status report.
ReplyDeleteThank you for doing the status reports. :)
DeleteBecause this fabric was super cheap (less than $2/yd), it didn't matter too much to me if I messed up, which certainly helped me on the confidence factor.
I've always wanted to learn to sew knits but I've never worked up the courage. I think it's the ribbing around the neck that scares me the most!
ReplyDeleteHow nice that you have no dress code. That always makes getting up in the morning easier! ;o)
The ribbing was actually easier to sew than the body of the shirt. Because the fabric is thicker, it didn't roll as much.
DeleteI lack the cognitive capacity in the morning to pick out my clothing, so I do it the night before. But yes, no dress code means I can wear jeans and a t-shirt if I'm feeling crummy. Of course, having a mostly monochromatic wardrobe means that most things already match. :)
Although I'm in Academia, I can't dress the way I want. We interact a lot with medical Doctors and they are quite conservative. This means no facial piercings, no abnormal hair colour and "decent" clothes.
ReplyDeleteAlready now I'm known as the crazy dressing girl, although I tone my style down so much! So, I'm happy that you can walk around however you like and admit that I'm a bit jealous on you...
When I was in grad school, there was a big push by those who oversaw the Office of Graduate Teaching for us to dress up (to the point of wearing suits) when we were teaching. Yeah, even though the professors, especially those in both of my departments, usually were in jeans. I once said something like "um, I don't have a suit", so they told me to just go buy one. I said "Have you seen what you pay me? It's below minimum wage. I can't 'just go buy a suit'." That was the end of that, though several students did complain about my attire to the department (not the Office of Graduate Teaching). They were laughed out.
DeleteI'm sorry that you have to tone down your style. It's so difficult to do and still feel like yourself.
Wow - you have the PERFECT job. So lucky!! This shirt is so cute. There are not enough long-sleeve t-shirts out there.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say that it's *perfect* - I have a cube rather than a private office (like my old job), it is far too cold, and I'm not allowed to have my phone at my desk, but it is, by far and large, the best job I've ever had. And as for long sleeved shirts, I love them: they keep the chill off, but they're thin enough not to make you overheat. I am thinking of buying some other knits and making another of these.
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