KCW: getting carried away is what it's all about

Thursday evening came around and I didn't really have any plans for the rest of Kid's Clothes Week. But what I did have was two cut out, ready to sew garments that Sarvi had posted me a while ago. One was a little white shirt with no known pattern...

That seemed like a fun challenge. No marked notches, no instructions, no known seam allowance....

From the shape of the front pattern pieces it was clear the plackets were to be folded back twice by about an inch. There was a single back yoke, long sleeves with cuffs and little single piece plackets and a pointy collar. Pieces identified. First phase complete.

I guessed at a 1/2" seam allowance and started sewing. Then I decided I couldn't be arsed rethreading the overlocker in white and wouldn't it be an extra fun challenge to make the shirt entirely with French seams throughout. I'd never done that before, but the fabric was nice and light so I figured it should work.

There could have been gathers, pintucks or a box pleat at the back there. A box pleat seemed an easy solution.

I didn't like the super pointy collar after I'd sewn it, so I rounded the ends to get this Peter Pan-ish collar. In doing so I found a neat trick for getting an on-the-fly collar adjustment to be symmetrical. I drew the shape I wanted on the interfaced wrong side of one collar point with a ceramic pencil then folded the collar in half so the pointy ends lined up perfectly and then rubbed firmly enough for the pencil line to be transferred to the other side of the collar. Voila, matching rounded collar ends. (not that the next picture demonstrates this)

At first I thought the collar was meant to be sewn right to the ends of the placket, but no way was that going to fit. I made up my own solution, but I realise that of course it was meant to stop at the placket edge as that's what gives the "double point" when the collar is open. Only mine now has a round and a point.

The bias binding of the collar seam was because I was too lazy to hand stitch the underside of the collar to make it nice and invisible. At this point I was still envisaging this as a plain white shirt, so this little bit of colour was a nice addition.

The sleeve plackets had me bamboozled. I've done simple one piece plackets that are just rectangles (such as the Music Class or Sketchbook patterns) and I've done neck plackets with two pieces, but I'd never seen a single piece, asymmetrical placket like this one. It looked a bit like a skyscraper church. Tall on one side and tall with a steeple on the other...

 

I made something up and came out with this. It looks fine and obviously would have complimented the very pointy collar, had I left that alone, very well. The inside is not as perfectly neat as I'd have liked but given I hadn't a clue what I was doing, I'm happy enough.

Saturday morning rolled around and kid's Clothes Week wasn't over but my plain white shirt was finished....

While I'd been sewing it I'd been thinking of a white shirt in a Japanese embroidery magazine that had a series of really cute little animals on it. Why not? After all, every Kid's Clothes Week needs a completely nuts and over-ambitious project, right?

The original picture had four little animals holding balloons, some flying birds, more animals reclining on clouds and a mouse on the back. I whittled the cast down to just two main animals and the mouse. After consulting A the rabbit and elephant were chosen and the hand stitching began....

The Japanese pattern kindly suggested stitches and thread colours for every part. .I could only locate about a third of the stitches in the glossary and just used some topstitching thread that I could find at Spotlight.

The main characters are back stitch with French knots for eyes. the balloon string is a twisted chain stitch and the balloons are mostly chain stitch in different formations.

 

You can see the fabric best here. It's a very nice, finely woven cotton with these tiny embroidered squares. There's just the tiniest hint of a hole at the centre of each one, so I guess it's technically an eyelet? It held up very well to the embroidery and I didn't put any interfacing behind it while I sewed.

 

Once or twice I got a bit tangled and had to cut and reknot my thread. I became a bit concerned about the feel and security of knots on the back, so I ironed some lightweight interfacing on after I'd finished all the stitching. I'll see how that holds up to washing. It may need some tiny white stitches to hold it in place.

 

 

I forget how much fun it is to sew by hand. Last night, Flipper was watching a movie and I could curl up on the couch and stitch away and pretend I was watching the movie (don't ask what it was about, I haven't a clue).

 

When the Tour de France starts I'll have to begin a huge project so I can abandon all sewing machine sewing and just stitch and watch the Tour for three weeks. Any suggestions?

 

 

Although these little critters are far from "wild" with their dresses and bows, it's somewhat on topic with the Kid's Clothes Week Wild Things theme.

 

 

So there we are. One mystery shirt, probably size 4, presumably an eyelet cotton, with some likely mistranslated Japanese embroidery. Thanks for the unfinished project Sarvi!

 

Now, I need to pack up my sewing things before I get the itch to do anything more tonight. Kid's Clothes Week is officially finished at our house! How was your week?