Theme Sewing - Oliver + S Raglan Tee

9.25.2013

You know what I really like about the Stashbusting Sewalong?  It's that they let me sew whatever I feel like. Which is good cause, "this bird you can not chain."  But Emily and Cindy are smart and know that sometimes a sewcialist might need a little inspiration. So they come up with a stashbusting theme each month that you can chose to sewalong with.  Half of the time I blithely ignore this and go on cutting out fabric while singing, "I did it my way."  "Regrets, I have a few, but you can't tell me what to do...," wait I don't think that's how it goes.

Annnnyway, this month the theme was sewing for children and you know what, I have a child! Also a smallish stash of children's fabrics that he'll grow out if I don't get cracking. I was most concerned about a cool space invader print that was only a 26" x 24" piece.  Since good boy knit prints are hard to come by, I'd snapped this wee piece up two years ago. It needed to be sewn up and quick!
Don't mind me, just pushing this it flickr.
Enter Oliver + S Raglan and Field Trip Cargo pants.   I made the pants for my nephew last Christmas and had a sewing disaster that forever scarred me. (Cut hole in almost done pants. Then had to rip out a shit ton of top-stitching to replace panel. It was black on black top-stitching...at night...in November.")  Just seeing the pattern made me want to hiss and yell, "The power of Christ compels you!" Thankfully I pulled it together and remembered that A- it wasn't the pattern's fault and B- we're just doing the easy knit shirt this time, so chill Heather, chill.

Desmond is currently wearing 3T, so I went with the 4T size for more growing room.  I also checked the pattern against some RTW 4T shirts and decided to add 1" of additional length to the shirt.
Using it for the sleeves is probably better since the print isn't square.
My original plan was to use the space invaders knit for the body, but there wasn't enough fabric and the damn print turned out to be off grain.  Oh well, I had plenty beefy black cotton/spandex laying around.  That would work for the body and the raglan sleeves would help disguise the skewing of the space invader print. Then red ribbing for the neck finish, cause everyone likes a nice pop of color.  Tadaaaaa.
And we're done. #sewing
Sewing the pocket is the trickiest part.  I used a straight stitch on the regular sewing machine with my edge stitch foot.  It took a couple of tries to get the stitches an even distance from the edge, but the sewing goddess smiled and made it happen.
The rest was all easy serging and a little coverstitch hemming. Oh toddler T-shirts, you are the best FO, I feel like making 20 of you.  The Oliver + S pattern and I are in a good place now, but someone stop me if I ever think about making woven toddler pants again.
Shhhh Mom, I'm taking care of the pictures myself.
Master Desmond said, "Robots Mommy, Robots!"  I told him they're aliens but he just shook his head cause everyone knows Mommy is crazy. "Robots it is, now let Mommy take your picture."  He then stole the camera and I had to grab some shots with the iPad. Here he is looking angelic right before he started licking my camera lens. Kids today and their propensities for licking technology!
This may be the only way to get pictures of him in the shirt.
This is the best shot modeled shot I could get cause the boy's got things to do, like take pictures of his lips while ignoring my shouts to smile for Mommy's iPad.  Good news is that the shirt fits him pretty well and he really likes it.  Bad news is when I have to take it off of him he gets pissed. "No my robot, MINE!!!"  Ahhh aren't they precious? Be nice to Mommy our she will steal your shirt and wear it as a hat. Yeahhh I'll make that look good. Phew, phew, phew, got you space invader.

18 comments:

  1. Very cool shirt, I love raglan on boys! I have the same problem with my little boy ; his Pajamas are too cool hence he never wants to get dress!

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  2. Adorable!! The shirt and your boy!
    I know I always say this when I see makes for little people ...but..I MISS the those days! Oh my gosh..and he loves it...try sewing for a teenager...no don't. Just go to the mall and hand over the money! Yup. Then go home a sew yourself a nice dress...

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  3. Cute, cute, CUTE!! Sewing for little boys is so fun, except for the dearth of cool fabrics available for them. That part isn't so fun. And I give you kudos for trying this pattern again mistakes at the very end are terribly traumatic, IMO. You had me sniggering at the pattern exorcism. ;-)

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  4. Very smart indeed

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  5. Des is too cute! And the shirt too - love the little pocket and the red neckband. I second what Margo wrote since I have a 13 year old, but I guess it does mean more selfish sewing for me!

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  6. LOL - the story of picture taking is hilarious the way you tell it!


    Love the fabric! You turned it into the perfect shirt - so cute!

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  7. love the tee! that is so adorable. haven't tried this pattern yet, but i need to since raglan tees are the best! and "licking technology"... oy, what will those kids think up next? ha!

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  8. Thank you, the raglan style is pretty cute. Oh those little boys and their cool clothes. Mom is only going to clean it and return it to you. :)

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  9. Yeah I can see how the teenagers would not be OK with homemade clothing yet. I guess that means more selfish sewing time? Unless they are spending all your fabric money.

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  10. Why is it so hard to find good boy print? Its so odd cause if you slap some robots or dinosaurs on there I'm usually happy. But yeah, I really needed to give that pattern another go, cause it wasn't at fault for the trauma.

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  11. The StashBusting sewalong is AWESOME!!! Not sure if I'm actually stash busting but that's my own fault. I also think the kids theme was great Em. They are fast projects and you can use up some scraps.

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  12. Thanks you Helen, I'm glad the little one likes it too.

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  13. Thank you Shar, his Daddy cut all his precious curls off after these pics. *Sob, Sob*

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  14. LOL, oh Des just model for Mommy please. Nope.

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  15. Thanks Lisa, it's a really nice pattern so do check it out.

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  16. This is such a fun print. I like it as the sleeves and pocket! Maybe I need this pattern for my boy- if only I didn't insist on him wearing collared shirts (polos or plaid button downs).

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  17. Only collared shirts! Wow, I think my son hates those and they aren't so much fun to sew either. Good luck converting him. :)

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  18. I dress him in plaid shirts and polos in the summer and jeans with plaid button down shirts in the winter. I love plaid on him. Am I weird? He has only 1 T-shirt that someone gave us and I let him wear it when we are traveling or going somewhere it will get really dirty.

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