Handkerchief-Hem Shirt

It's been far too long since I actually sewed anything. To scratch the sewing itch while my machine is (STILL) in the repair shop, I thought I would try to sew something up using only my serger.

  I had some grey knit that I found at Walmart half a year ago, so I used that. It's a much thinner knit than I like to use, and rolls like nobody's business, so I starched all of my pieces well before seaming them together. It does drape nicely though. =)

  I created this pattern from a basic tee pattern I drafted last year.... it has a curved front seam and a straight back seam, and attached is a square piece whose middle circle is closer to the back than to the front. Like this:

Please excuse my meager paint skills... my free trial of Illustrator ended. ;-)

  The front curved seam was a little difficult to draft... my first iteration was too low in the front and too wide. I had to seam-rip it and re-cut the curve. The second try was still too wide, and the whole shirt was too large, since I drafted the base while I was pregnant with Beckers. So to help with both of those issues at once, I hand-gathered a 4 inch section at the front center seam, tacked it tightly together, and stitched a bow on top. This is actually my favorite detail of the whole shirt. =)

  The sleeves have a pale-pink lettuce-edge hem, and the neck is the prettiest banded neckline I've ever done. There is one wavy section in the back of the neckline, but it still miles better than my last attempt. I was undecided as to whether I should lettuce-edge the hem as well, so for now it is raw, despite my dislike of raw edges even on knit. I'll see if I want to finish it better later.

  I'd like to try this again with a few alterations... I want to test it with the whole bodice seam lifted by an inch and a half, so it is closer to my actual waistline in the back.

  And of course, I want to tighten up those side seams a little more, and I'd also like to use a better-quality knit... I have a feeling that this one isn't going to last through many washings.

  So this is my verdict: it's not difficult to sew a shirt completely on the serger, as long as the needle tension is high enough, but I do like to have a sewing machine handy to finish the hems and neckline.

  Speaking of sewing machines... mine is still in the repair shop, and it's going to cost around $70 to fix. That pretty much guarantees that I won't be letting anyone else use my sewing machine again, since I can't afford that happening regularly. (I wasn't the one using it when it broke.) I definitely need a back-up, preferably something that I won't mind breaking.

  So now I need to find some more knit fabric so I can serge more stuff so I don't go crazy because I can't sew stuff. =)

 Oh! And one more thing... I took a cue from Bethany at Sweet Bee Buzzings and added some social media icons to my sidebar. They are up at the top, so if you'd like to check out my Facebook or Pinterest, email me or subscribe to my feed, now it won't be so difficult! =) I used these icons and edited one of them to create the email version.

Thanks for stopping by!