Saturday 30 June 2018

Frankie T-Shirt



I very rarely make things that are green. In fact, I don't think that I've ever made something green before, and it's not a colour that I have in my ready to wear wardrobe either. But for some reason I found myself buying some green jersey when I went to Stoff and Stil last summer. Stoff and Stil have the most incredible selection of jersey fabrics I have ever seen (if you're interested in seeing what else I bought from them you can have a read of that here) and this fabric is the same. It's a medium/heavy weight knit, possibly even a ponte di roma, which means that it has a lovely structure but isn't so rigid that it doesn't hang nicely. It's also a wonderful quality fabric.


I've never been put off sewing plain t-shirts as such in the past, but they're not exactly the sort of project that I'm drawn to. However, when I re-discovered this fabric (which had been somewhat neglected at the back of the cupboard during winter) I quickly found myself levitating towards sewing a Frankie t-shirt. This is the first time I've sewn the Frankie but not the first time that I've used Tilly and the Buttons book Stretch! so I knew to expect perfect instructions and a good fit. I did want to make a couple of adjustments to the pattern though. In the end the main thing that I changed was to take quite a lot off of the hem. The actual t-shirt length is quite long and I knew that I wanted to make it cropped. Also, this fabric isn't the light weight drapey jersey that the pattern calls for, so I thought that it would hang better if it was shorter and I didn't fancy being swamped in a mass of dark green fabric. 



As I've been sewing quite a few t-shirts recently I've found that I've been sewing more and more neckbands. Surprisingly, I'm actually really starting to enjoy sewing them! I now know the right techniques so that the neckband is evenly placed along the neckline and I love how satisfying it is to sew a neckband and topstitch around it. Also, sewing it on an overlocker makes it so quick! That being said, I did recently have to unpick a neckband that I sewed on the overlocker because I placed it the wrong way round...
By now I've made quite a few a few differnt t-shirts and I'm really pleased that this one will be a good pattern to add to the list. The Frankie t-shirt isn't dissimilar to the Linden, but I find that the neckline is much smaller which I prefer. Also, the Linden is more of a jumper wheras this is definitely a t-shirt. Hopefully it will be a really useful top to just throw on but with the benefit of it being handmade to make it more special.

8 comments:

  1. This is so nice looking on you! It's dreadful to unpick a neckband after the overlocker...I've done it a few times. :) No matter how experienced at sewing you become, things do have to be unpicked from time to time. This color looks lovely on you and the length is perfect.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Yes unpicking is definitely an unavoidable aspect of sewing...

      Delete
  2. The neckband looks perfect. I suspect you are loving your new serger!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes the overlocker is wonderful! I love it, especially for sewing with jersey.

      Delete
  3. Great! You're so talented!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great looking t-shirt and so neatly done. You shortened it to a perfect length; you've really mastered the neckband.

    ReplyDelete
  5. this is such a wonderful staple!

    ReplyDelete