short sleeved raglan

Sewing For Boys raglan tee - made from XXL shirt

 

ok, so this project was a bit of a disaster, but once I fixed all the issues and got it done I decided that I love it to death. Clover looks so adorable in this little shirt, and she clearly loves it. I used a clearance section long sleeved Old Navy shirt to make this, so it cost about 4$ to make. No wait. I take that back. I actually had a rewards coupon on me and spent under a dollar on my whole purchase that day (plus it was 10% off day for cardholders). So this shirt and the bloomers I made were essentially free. 

 

anyway, the issues came down to me departing from the method of making the tee in Sewing For Boys, and using my serger. I'm still not sure WHAT happened, but my tension or something was messed up..maybe the differential feed...but it was all tight and had negative stretch. It was actually puckered. And of course I didn't notice until after I was almost done making the whole thing. Have you ever tried to pick out serging with a seam ripper? Hell. I did the bare minimum to release the tension out of it by ripping out a lot of the overlock and pulling on the fabric to get the spring back into it, and then resewed the whole thing a little bit smaller (since I didn't open any of the seams back up) with a zig zag stitch like I should have done in the first place. 

After the large large large results of making her a size 4/5 tee, I reverted back to the 2/3 and just widened the neck to make room for her big ole head. To do this I just cut out the neckband for the 4/5 and trimmed a bit of the fabric off of the neck area of the sleeves and front/back. It turned out perfect and looks great on her. No struggles getting it over her big noggin either. I swear, the girl is storing a LOT of information in that head of hers! I also lengthened the pattern to fit her long torso, and added a curve to the hem area, which is a really good thing since I had to cut off all of the serging I did there. My thought was that with it being a raw edged shirt, the bottom will curl everywhere except the button placket, and to avoid a wonky bottom edge on the shirt, I would serge it to stop it from curling. Well, that was absolutely correct in theory (I'm slowly getting better at thinking ahead in my sewing adventures) until my serger basically gathered the bottom edge. So now it's wonky but at least it's stretchy.

I reused the placket from the original shirt to make a cute button detail on the bottom of the shirt.

can you tell that she likes her shirt? lol! Of course it's made out of knit, and the neckband isn't too loose, so of course she loves it. 

 

Clover loves this polka dot skirt i made for her ages ago, and the poor skirt is just done. Originally it had tulle between the two fabric layers to add some poof, and it's all been destroyed by Violet. There are little nubs of tulle left pathetically hanging from the seam of this thing. And the super cheap Joanns quilting cotton has become....droopy. You get what you pay for! Unless it's on sale....At any rate, I am beginning to have a better grasp on what makes a better lasting and feeling garment fabric, and what just looks appealing to the eye until you actually try to use it. 

Clover says she needs more skirts, so I'm working on that. Eventually I will have to reap the elastic out of the waist of this thing and sneak the rest of it into the trash when she isn't looking.

 

*sigh* I love this sweet, pretty little girl. She drives me absolutely crazy, but I love her. Can't wait to see more of the person she will become.