Quick Embroidery Project

Ham radio operators often wear clothing or tags with their call signs.  This helps them recognize other people that they've talked to on the radio, but might never have seen in person.  A friend recently got her first ham radio license and I thought I would surprise her with a gift of a shirt with her own call sign on it.

I bought a simple solid color T-shirt.  I was careful to choose one that wasn't quite as thin as some of the ones being sold -- the embroidery needs some kind of decent substrate and I'm sure the recipient would like to wear the shirt more than once or twice.

Step 1 is to design the embroidery.  Since only simple letters are required, it would have been possible to just use my embroidery machine to do the design.  However, I decided to use my Floriani Total Control software instead.  using the software gives me a much larger choice of fonts.  I chose simple block letters for the call sign, since that's the usual and customary choice.  I opted for a more script look for her name.

Step 2 is to do the embroidery.  I attended the International Quilt Show in Houston last month.  There were thousands of vendors and some of them had products related to embroidery.

This tape claims to be just the thing when you are trying to keep parts of a garment away from the hoop and the needle, which can be a real challenge when dealing with T-shirts.

The tape proved to be noticeably stickier than painter's tape and to be capable of holding the shirt very well.  It left no residue on the fabric.  Overall, this new to me product met my expectations.

There you have it: a simple project, a review of a new product, and a happy ending.

Come back next week for a new fun project that involves a sewing machine!

T-Shirt Embroidery

Last week, I shared how I was working with a new material, linen jersey knit, and making a T-shirt as a test garment.  There's no reason not to embellish it and test out that aspect of how the material works.  There were some real challenges with the fabric, but surprisingly, the embroidery went smoothly.

The fabric is extremely light weight, so it can only support a low density design.  With the summery fabric and light blue color, I opted for a design that reminds me of the beach.  The design from Embroidery Library can be found here.

For my T-shirts, I like to put the embroidery high, to emphasize the neckline, rather than a more traditional placement in the center of the chest.  Designs that are at least vaguely V-shaped work best for this.  The design I chose isn't completely symmetric, but it works.

For design placement, I printed a copy of the design at exactly the same size as it would stitch out and set the horizontal placement to clear the neckline seam.  The center of the design is on the center of the shirt.  The original colors of light blue and yellow weren't going to work on my blue fabric, so I opted for an off white for the center and tan for the rest of the design.  In the photo, I'm placing the spools on the fabric to see if the colors are pleasing together.

I chose Floriani no show mesh for the stabilizer.  A knit needs a stabilizer that will stick to the fabric somehow to keep the fabric from stretching as it's sewn out.  The no-show mesh stabilizer has a temporary heat bond to the fabric, after stitching, it becomes a lightweight cutaway to permanently stabilize the fabric while not making it stiff.   I was very careful to not move the iron sideways on the fabric while attaching the stabilizer, given my previous problems with ironing this fabric. 

The finished design shows no puckering and blends well with the fabric.  It's more subtle than my usual style, but everyone needs variety.

Come back next week for more Fun with a Sewing Machine!

New Materials: Linen Knit

It's always fun to try out new materials, techniques, and styles.  While in Minneapolis, I found some linen jersey knit.  I've worked with woven linen fabric and some knits, but never a linen knit.  So, I bought enough to make a T-shirt as a test garment.

Most fabrics I buy go straight into the washer before I even think about cutting them out.  Pre-shinking the fabric means the final garment will still fit.  In this case, washing before cutting may have been a serious mistake.  The fabric came out of the dryer with a very serious roll to the selvages.  I decided to iron the fabric and take care of that problem.  BIG MISTAKE.

Ironing did remove most of the roll, but in the process, the selvages were stretched relative to the center.  A second trip through the laundry didn't fix the problem, nor did an attempt to stretch the middle of the fabric with an iron.  Lack of recovery (not returning to the original shape after stretching) seems to be an issue with this fabric.  After a third trip through the laundry, the problem wasn't all fixed, but it was at least better.

The roll at the edge of the fabric made it impossible to line up the pattern pieces on the straight of the grain in the usual way.  I tried to lay out the fabric straight, then applied the pattern pieces.  I'm sure there's some error in the placement, but with a knit fabric, maybe that's OK.  Also, due to the earlier differential stretching, there wasn't a consistent grain anyway.

I my standard T-shirt pattern and construction techniques, described in detail in a previous post.

Unfortunately, a fold of fabric got caught up in the neck seam.  I was able to fix the problem, but in the process, I got some small holes in the thin fabric.

I was able to fix the holes and hopefully the repairs won't be too obvious.

I'm not sure that I like this fabric.  Maybe I don't know the right ways to deal with it, or maybe I didn't have the right application for it.  I'll wear the shirt a while and see how it goes.  Linen is a wonderful fabric for summer, very cool and comfortable.  Here in the South, we've definitely got some more warm weather coming this year.

Come back next week for a post about the embroidery on this shirt.

Lizards, Anyone? A Simple T-Shirt

JoAnn Fabric has these lovely knit fabrics in the juvenile section.  They are perfect for T-shirts.  I saw this blue print with green lizards and decided I needed it.

The fabric is a 100% cotton summer weight knit.  I supposed they figured that this would be perfect for little boys, but why should they have all the fin clothes?  I made a shirt sized for myself.

I used Kwik-Sew 3766 for the pattern.  It has options for sleeve length and neckline.  This shirt was made with the higher neckline and short sleeves.  This pattern is one of my patterns that I return to again and again: a solid pattern for a wardrobe staple.

The pattern calls for 1 1/8 yards for a short sleeve shirt.  I've found that often isn't quite enough, so I buy 1 1/4 yards of fabric for this shirt.  The front and back must be cut before the sleeves, because the fabric has to be folded differently to cut out the sleeves.

Stretch is great in a knit shirt, but not on the should seams.  Adding some non-stretchy material, like this hem tape, to the should seams helps the garment to maintain it's shape.

The neckline seam is the hardest one in the whole shirt.  The neck band is smaller than the neck hole, so it needs to be stretched evenly all the way around.  Using lots of pins to distribute the fullness equally, then stretching the fabric slightly as you sew the seam does the trick.

I've tried a bunch of different way to hem a T-shirt without a serger.  The one I like best is to use a knit or stretch stitch to finish the edge of the fabric, then fold up the hem and sew it in place with a straight stitch.

There you have it -- an easy and colorful addition to your wardrobe, perfect for warmer temperatures and more casual summer dressing.