Basics

Thank you for your replies to my previous post! 

And there were some questions earlier about the corset and lingerie. About the free corset pattern: I downloaded mine using this link, from Emerald Erin's blog
which works and doesn't require connecting through Facebook. And about supplies for corsets and lingerie: I live in the Netherlands, so if you are somewhere on another continent, the shops I go to won't be very useful to you. In fact, the same materials may even go by different names where you are. As far as I know, powernet is always sold under that name or as powermesh but non-stretch lingerie materials are always a bit of a mystery. Dutch shops tend to call the light-weight variety you use to line bra cups "tule" but I don't think anyone else does... 
If you are trying to sew an item like a lingerie corset/merry widow or some other piece of shapewear, I would recommend finding a specialized (web)shop and explaining what you need. They should be able to help you make a selection from what they sell.

This week, I have just been making some simple things. The sort of basic tops you always end up needing. At least, I always do somehow. 
I didn't make any changes to my pattern yet. I'm considering moving the shoulder seam a bit towards the front next time I use my knit sloper but I'm not sure yet. I made that change on A's sloper (the climbing friend I'm trying to make some tops for) only to find out that a couple of weeks more of training had shifted the balance of the muscles at her shoulders again... 
The shoulder seams on my t-shirts always pulled towards the back a little, so I'm not even sure it is worse now. I think I'll just wear these for a while and then decide, based on that experience.

Anyway, this white and green knit is a bit thin and transparent but nice (and not made from polyester because there is no static cling!). Because I would always have to wear something under it anyway, I gave it a nice, deep, draped neckline. It is not a cowl neck, just a deep scoop with a drape piece sewn on to it (I'll make a little pattern how-to tomorrow). 

The other top is even simpler. Just a long sleeved t-shirt. I've been holding on to this striped fabric for two years now. It's lovely and soft and it cost a little more than I usually pay for jersey. For most of the time, I was saving it for some special project even though it was obviously perfect for a basic top like this. So, that's what I did with half of the fabric after all.

The top may look very simple but it took me more time to make than the green one. All because of the material. I tried to cut the pieces carefully, so I could match the stripes but the fabric is very soft and shifty. It is also made of two layers: The transparent, striped outer layer and a black inner layer. Both are very soft and thin and they are tacked together at about 3 cm intervals. Where the fabric is cut, the layers start to peel apart. 
I managed to sew it up, matching the stripes at the side seams and along the sleeves, only to find out that the fit was too loose and baggy (that's what you get when using such a soft, slinky fabric). I took it in but the stripe matching is less good now. 
I kept the sleeves on both tops a bit long. It felt nice and bigger arm- and shoulder muscles make sleeve pull up so it may work as a long-term plan (or not, because their fit is still pretty slim).

And I made something even more basic: A loop-scarf.
This red jersey is made from nice cotton, knitted in the round. Cotton and nothing else. As a result, it has no recovery whatsoever. I made a top from it once. After one day of wearing, I had to take in about 5 cm at each seam. And it still kept "growing" and didn't keep its shape. And washing didn't restore it either. I still had a meter and a half of the stuff and when I was picking out fabric for the tops, I found it and realized it would work as a scarf. That way, I don't have to worry about fit no matter how much it stretches out. 

So, that's what I did. I also have some off-white and some black jersey in my stash which have the same annoying qualities (all of it was very cheap. On sale for only 1 euro a meter...). I may just give those fabrics the same treatment.
  

t-shirt reloaded

There is something else I made last week. I just didn't blog about it yet because the items themselves aren't exactly interesting to look at. It is interesting for me to have them though.

I re-made my knit sloper. I had been putting that off ever since I made my new slopers. After all, because jersey is stretchy, most of my old t-shirts still fit. However, some (especially those made from less stretchy varieties of jersey) are now a bit snug across the chest and others suffer from the fact that many kinds of jersey are less stretchy vertically than horizontally. Their center front pull up and, as a result, the side seams pull to the front. It's not noticeable when I wear the tops tucked in but eh... It's not how it should be.

Before showing the top, I should explain that this knit sloper, in both the old and the new version, is not designed with negative ease. It is meant as a starting point for drafting all kinds of jersey garments for normal daily wear and is derived (in a fairly arbitrary way) from my normal bodice sloper. If I'd be making a tube top or a fitted tank top, I would use the body sloper from my lingerie patterns, which is drafted with negative ease (which reminds me: I haven't re-made that one yet).

I first tried the new sloper (with its full, high neck) in some ugly old knit fabric and adjusted it to get the fit right. Then, I decided to make a simple, basic t-shirt variation to see if it really worked.

Which became this modest black V-necked number. The fabric is a bit of eco-cotton left over from an old collection of M's. As such, it contains very little lycra (2%, if any) and is a kind of faded black (it was difficult to achieve saturated dark colours with early fully eco-friendly dyes) but it's also really nice to the touch.
I think this top will be a nice simple basic, once the weather cools down.

Then, with some fabric left (but not enough for a similar top) I made another top.

This one, with its wide low boat neck. I own two tops with similar necklines, one with short sleeves and one with three quarter length ones. The first one was one my first makes in jersey (from a Burda pattern which I lost a couple of years ago), sewn on my old Toyota sewing machine which ate fabrics like that. I just used straight stitching to limit the amount of damage the machine would do. As a result, it's far from perfect but it still gets worn. The other top is even older: Bought at H&M years ago, it is one of the few RTW items I still wear.
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you've seen both of these tops more than once because I often pick them out to complement 'statement' skirts.
So, obviously, I needed a new version. This time from a pattern drafted by me, based on that new knit sloper.
So, that's what I did. I've already been wearing this top and I love it. I think I will need several more in different colours and with different sleeve lengths...   

It's a Dutch thing

Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm Dutch and living in the country's residence, The Hague (the Netherlands being one of those countries in which the seat of government is not in the capital. The capital, of course, is Amsterdam). 
These days, all of the Netherlands are preparing for a fairly rare event: the abdication of the present Queen and the inauguration of the new King, this Tuesday (a ceremony which will be held in Amsterdam, by the way). 
In most of the world's remaining monarchies abdication is very rare but that is a bit less so here. In fact, in the two hundred years this country has been a kingdom, 3 out of the 5 (soon to be 4 out of 6) monarchs have left the job by abdication. 
What is unusual to all Dutch people alive now, is the fact that, after a century of queens regnant, there will be a king. And a queen consort as an added bonus, obviously. 

I'm not much of a royalist, but I do think there is a long tradition connecting the country, its people and the house of Orange-Nassau. A tradition which helped shape the nation. Just a bit of a pity that tradition won't be reinforced with the official name of the King: it will be Willem Alexander, not Willem IV...

So, after some not-very-thorough consideration, and after seeing shop windows and street decorations slowly turn more and more orange, I decided to fabricate my own little nod towards the orange fever. (although the Dutch flag is red-white-blue, the colour associated with the royal family and the colour which, in itself, is used to represent "Dutch-ness", for example in sporting events, is orange).

I think orange is too much of a cliche and it's not a colour I can wear anywhere near my face. Instead, I decided to use an old idea of mine: a heraldry print t-shirt. 

This is the Dutch coat of arms. Very much one of a late date, I think (it is, this royal version came into use in 1815). Loads of flourices and the actual shield making up only a small portion of the whole thing. Also, in some cases, like on the uniforms of national sports teams, only one lion is used, without the sword and bunch of arrows of the one on the shield.
I also found an image of the crest without the ermine drapes and top crown, which would have been easier to trace, but I thought the outline of the whole thing would work better on a t-shirt. 

To create the 'print' I didn't use t-shirt transfer paper. I don't like the plastic-y layer you get with that. I used my cheat's method to trace the whole thing with fabric marker. It's a method I've mentioned on this blog before, but never explained well.

The principle is simple: You find a picture to use, either on the internet or by scanning (consider copyright though) and scale it up to the size you want. If your picture has writing in it or is directional in some other way, flip it vertically (I forgot that this time...), then print. Black-and-white is fine. For this t-shirt, I used two A4 prints, printed with a bit of overlap so I could easily stick them back together. 
Then, trace those elements you want to copy with tailor's chalk. Pick a colour which contrasts both with the print and with your fabric. And be very careful to work from the top down and from left to right (if you're right-handed, that is) to avoid smudging your work. At this stage, I simplified the draping and left out all the spots of the ermine.

Then, it's time to get the image onto the fabric. You could do this on a finished garment, but I prefer working with a single layer. No risk of getting colour on the other side and less shifting about. Position the traced image carefully above the t-shirt front, image side down. To get a clear image to trace, you can't put it down and shift it. Put it down when you've decided on the position and gently pad and rub the back of the paper. When you remove it, you will see a prefect mirror image outlined on the t-shirt front in fine lines of chalk. At this point, I discovered my mistake...

Now, get out your fabric marker and trace the chalk lines, working from the bottom up and from right to left, so you won't fade out any of the lines. I decided to trace all the symmetrical elements of the coat of arms now and leave the writing and the directional shield for later. In stretchy knits, it is impossible to get perfectly clean and smooth lines, so you have to work carefully. 

With the image half-way finished, I was kind of fed up with all this detail. Those lions have a ridiculous amount of curly bits. I didn't really feel like going back to an even smaller and more complicated version of the animal. And writing has to look sharp or it will look silly... So, I just went ahead and sewed the t-shirt. Symbolically, a lot can be said about the message of an empty coat of arms but when I showed the t-shirt to E, he thought it to be a very royalist look...