New Look 6216 (again)

With half an eye on MMMay I thought it was time to break out New Look 6216 again and make a couple more basic t-shirts. The grey one I made last year is still one of my favourite things to wear and I think these 2 will get a lot of wear too.

When we were at the Knitting and Stitching Show last year my sister bought some fabric to make her own version of this pattern. Because it looked like she was never going to get round to it I offered to cut out the pieces for her and while I was at it I thought I may as well cut out some fabric for one for me too. I figured that way we could make them together so I could demonstrate without actually messing with her project.

I bought this stripy blue fabric with this particular pattern in mind and I'm really pleased that I did. The stripes themselves are really sheer and slightly sparkly making this shirt a little bit fancier than your ordinary tee. Despite being very careful not to do so I managed to cut the back out slightly wonky so I was worried that the stripes would make that really obvious. I didn't quite have enough fabric to cut another back so I just left it and it looks just fine. My sister's T-shirt turned out nicely too, I'll have to see if I can get her to send me a photo to show off.

My second version was originally going to be another Briar tee, but in the end I decided I wanted a really, really quick project to complete while the fabric for my next project was in the wash. Obviously Briar is hardly a time consuming project but this doesn't even have sleeves to sew on and I already had the pattern out so it seemed even quicker. Of course it all went a bit wrong, but you can't plan for that unfortunately.

To make the project even quicker I thought I'd try adding a hem band, eliminating hemming and creating a cleaner finish. In principal this was a good idea but I need to fiddle with the length of the band a bit next time because it didn't look great. No biggie, I thought, I'll just cut it off (I'd overlocked it and I wasn't unpicking) and the shirt will just end up a little shorter. So I started to cut and got distracted by something or other.... insert your own toddler disaster of choice here... and had to go back to it later. Upon resuming I couldn't seem to find where I'd started cutting despite looking all the way round until I realised I'd have to look further afield and discovered I'd actually cut halfway around one of the sleeve bands. Oops! So I had to lop both of those off too and then sew them back on again before actually cutting off the hem band and hemming the bottom.

The end result is slightly shorter than planned, with slightly shorter sleeves and a wee slim sleeve bands but it looks much better than I'd feared. The fabric is the real star here, it's super glitzy and also really soft and squishy. It all worked out in the end, thankfully and now I have two more t-shirts to keep me from wearing nothing but Lady Skater dresses for the entirety of May!

FO:New Look 6216 again

Today's post was meant to be about my latest Lady Skater dress but I've completely failed at getting a any good photos of that so instead of boring you all to death with yet another Lady Skater I'm going to bore you senseless with another previously made pattern.  This time it's New Look 6212, which you may remember from the time I presented you with a post that was mostly about a grey t-shirt.

Just to mix things up a bit (or maybe because it suddenly got bloody freezing here!) I made the longer sleeved version this time.  It's still a grey t-shirt though, I really know how to keep things interesting around here!

When I bought the fabric for this I was planning on making another short sleeved version so I only got 1 metre and it was a bit touch and go on whether I'd actually be able to squeeze this one out of it.  Because the sleeves are cut on it uses up a lot of width and means you can't really jiggle the bits around until they fit and the only way I was able to do it was to have a seam up the back.

My stripes are a little off, but I don't think it's too noticeable and is certainly better than plan B which was to cut the back out of different fabric.  Other than that this whole top took me two evenings to make, including tracing the pattern, which is always a bonus.  I did most of it on my overlocker, although with hindsight I should have stuck the neck band in with my sewing machine, it's quite wobbly in places.  I sewed the hems with a lightening bolt stitch because I still haven't got the settings quite right for twin needling and my hems keep popping.  It's not my favourite finish, but it really doesn't notice if I don't look too closely.  Next time I might just draw up a little band for the end of the sleeve because I think that will look neater and I'd like a little more length too.  I think I'd also avoid a stripy fabric in future because I think that the lengthwise stripes on the arms do look a bit weird.  I still really like this top and it's quirky sleeves, but I'm not sure it's a feature I want to replicate.

This pattern is a total winner and I know this won't be the last time I use it.  Next time I'll go crazy and maybe not use grey though.  Maybe.

P.S. I may have a teensy weensy bit of a hangover in these photos so that's my excuse for the terrible bed hair.  Not gonna apologise though, the night before was the first time I've hit the town since having Cassie so it's hardly surprising that I got a bit squiffy!