.More Basic Tees.

So excited to hear all of your lovely feedback about my new pattern, Basic Tees.  I have to say, I am hooked on this pattern at the moment.  It is great to have a pattern that I can quickly sew over and over again and know that my kids will wear it every day.  I did mention in my previous post that I have sewn 10 tees in 1 week!  It was fun to choose fabric combos and come up with different embellishments for the kids - I tried to pick things that they were interested in and they love them!  

Time for a bit of a show and tell - I have listed all of the fabrics used below the photo sets in case you are wanting to find similar fabrics. I'll share some with you today and then a few more tomorrow...

First up, here's Oscar (looking very serious!) in his plain, long-sleeved tee (View A).  I wasn't sure if I was going to embellish all of the tees I'd made and thought I'd sew them all up and then see if they needed anything more - and this one did. 

I haven't really sewn anything for Oscar in quite awhile (besides his High Flyers pants) and I didn't realise that all of a sudden it has become a little trickier to come with applique designs that suit older boys.  The boy style embellishments that I would usually turn to all seemed a bit "cute" for him, so I spent a bit of time online looking for inspiration and found this great paper aeroplane image to use as a freezer paper stencil - perfect for our boy who is going through reams of paper a week making aeroplanes.  His favourite thing to Google and watch YouTube videos about at the moment is "how to make the world's best paper aeroplane"!!!!

The thin white border around the outside of the stencil was a happy accident...I painted the plane white to start with, but it didn't come out as bright as I hoped, so painted black over the top and ended up with some of the white on the edges of the black.  It looks kinda cool.

FABRIC = Stella knit in Ocean

And here's Lilsy.  Her tee is View D - a girl's long-sleeved tee with contrast short-sleeve overlay and contrast neckline and double hem. 

Once I'd sewn this tee, it was a little bright for me and I was worried that the colours I picked were too "out there" together.  The applique has really helped to bring it all together though, and she loves it which is the main thing!  It is a little big for her at the moment - I sewed a size 4 and she turned 4 last week.

FABRIC = Stella knit in Hot Pink and Virdis

Tommy's tee is another View A - but this time I used a contrast colour for the neckline and sleeves.

 

I liked the look of this one without any embellishments and love the fact that it is easy to find boy-friendly knit fabrics.  Tommy's tee is a bit big too - he is 2 and I sewed a size 2 but he is still pretty mini so he will be getting lots of wear out of his!

FABRIC = Stella knit in Charcoal Marle, Hilco Campan knit in Sage/Orange

And lastly for today is Lil - this is View B...girl's plain tee with short-sleeves.  I ended up gathering the hemline of the sleeve a little and sewing some  binding in the same way as for the neck to hem the sleeves.  Love the way this one has turned out and will be making many more for summer.

The applique is a bird silhouette I found online and I used the same knit fabric that I used for the neck and sleeve binding.  Instead of using a zig-zag stitch around the edge of all of my appliques, I have used a triple stitch on my sewing machine.  After having a bit of a play with it, I much prefer the way that it looks.  If you are using triple stitch with wovens though (like I did in the "LOVE" tee above) then you'll need to keep in mind that the edges will fray after a few washes.  Knits don't fray though so nothing to worry about with this bird applique!

FABRIC = Stella knit in Ink, Hilco Campan knit in Hot Pink/Orange

And I thought you might be interested in checking out the dressing studio we used for the shoot...these kids get all the luxuries of paid models - quick changes with Dad in the middle of the alleyway!!  They were very good little models yesterday actually - and they may or may not have been bribed with lolly pops ;)

For the month of August, Crafty Mamas is offering a free gift with any knit purchase if you leave the comment "make it perfect" with your order - I wonder what goodies will be turning up in your letter box?!


See you tomorrow with some more Basic Tee creations!