Shirts With Sass

  Making birthday gifts for each of my closest relatives hasn't been too bad so far... it helps that I'm keeping things pretty simple for most of the gifts. ;-) But I've managed to give handmade for every birthday on my list so far! Today I have a batch of four t-shirts to share. =)

  First, I sewed up this funny shirt for my father-in-law:

  I used black 12oz knit from Nick Of Time Textiles for these shirts. The black isn't currently available, but there are a few other colors. The package was shipped to the wrong address (I managed to retrieve it thanks to the wonders of social media!) but the customer service was great about it, and I am really pleased with the knit! I would absolutely buy this again. It's thick, stretchy, soft, and has great recovery, plus hasn't pilled or faded in the wash.

  I used white heat transfer vinyl for this one. As usual, it is Siser Easyweed bought from Expressions Vinyl.

  I made a washi tape bow to top the packaging on this one, and it looked pretty cool, but I wish I hadn't bothered as it was tossed in the garbage without even a second glance. I didn't get photos of any of the other packages!

  Next, I made a shirt for my husband using the same materials:

  I used Jalie 2918 in various sizes to make all of these. They are all the crew-neck, short-sleeved version. I haven't been particularly happy with the way my twin-needle stitching has turned out, so on this and the previous shirt I used fusible hem tape to stick the hems in place and stabilize them before sewing. It helped to reduce the tunneling quite a bit but I dislike the reduced stretch. The stitches popped in a bunch of places on my husband's shirt too, so that was disappointing!

  In case you are wondering... my husband requested this shirt, and I clearly don't know everything! ;-)

  Third on the list was my tall young brother-in-law! I used orange heat transfer vinyl on this one. I meant to add a couple inches of length to the body of the shirt but completely forgot when cutting it, so it's not as custom as I meant for it to be, but it didn't look too short.

  This saying may have been a bit too sassy! Everyone who read it winced slightly then politely chuckled! ;-)

  And finally, for my youngest brother-in-law, I made a blue shirt instead. This fabric is the denim color 12oz cotton lycra from Nick of Time Textiles, and is superb! It has a tiny bit more of a starchy feel than the black after the pre-wash, but I think it will be just as soft after a couple of washes.

  I also used orange vinyl on this one:

  For both of the brother-in-law shirts, I finally bought some bulky nylon thread for my bobbin, and it really, really helped! It's wonderfully stretchy, so I'm not worried about thread breakage at all, and it also helped with the tunneling!

  I added tags from some printed ribbon that I bought years ago in all of the shirts. I'm not entirely happy with the neckbands on these... using the pattern piece works fine in a fabric with a softer stretch or ribbing, but with this fabric I think I should narrow or shorten the neckband a bit.

  And now I'm down to only about 6 unblogged projects... guess I'd better go sew! ;-)

Thanks for stopping by,