Her favourite colour is red
Miss B is currently avoiding all the summer dresses in her wardrobe and wearing skirts and t-shirts. Choosing clothes is her domain. It’s my responsibility to ensure there are clean clothes in the cupboard. But as Miss B only has a handful of t-shirts, I’m currently not keeping up my end of the bargain!
So, I put my machine knitting and selfish sewing aside yesterday, and set to work on a girls t-shirt pattern. The pattern I choose was the Hoops T-Shirt (pictured below on the right) from Ottobre 3/2012 .
Miss B was allowed to choose the knit fabric from my extensive stash. I wasn’t surprised by her choice – red is her favourite colour. The fabric is a Hilco Campan Knit (97% cotton and 3% elastane) from Earthgirl Fabrics. The red and white stripe has sold out, but there are other colourways available.
I made size 104, which is one size bigger than Miss B’s measurements. Room for growing?
This was the first time that I’d applied neck binding on a t-shirt so the binding encloses the seam and it is stitched down on the right side (I don’t even know what this method is called!). Although not perfect, I was happy with the result. On previous knit necklines I’ve used Jorth’s neckline binding tutorial.
Rather than using ribbing for the binding, I made binding (read here… I burnt my fingers too many times to count!) from the t-shirt fabric. For unknown reasons, I’m not a fan of ribbing.
The pattern suggested I use clear elastic tape to gather the sleeves head and hems, but as I didn’t have any, I improvised and shirred these areas (I used elastic thread in the bobbin of my machine). It worked a treat!
The gathering on my sleeve hem isn’t as noticeable as in the magazine picture. Before bed last night we had a ‘half-way through construction try-on’ and I was worried the sleeves would be too tight. I then purposely removed the majority of the gathering when applying the binding. Looking at the photo below, I think I over compensated. Something to remember for next time, and yes, there will definitely be a next time!
Miss B is very happy with her new stripey t-shirt and Mr Blogless Anna’s commented “That looks like a shop brought t-shirt.” High praise indeed.
And finally a word from our model, “Stop taking my photo”.
Can I have one of those tshirts please? I love it!
And I want your demin skirt 🙂
How adorable! Lucky you went a size up, do you think it’ll still fit at the end of summer?
I have all my fingers and toes crossed that it will still fit at the end of summer. Miss B has already chosen fabric for two more of these!
Brilliant, nothing better than them loving what you make 🙂
Awwww.. gorgeous. I reckon you should just go production-line with those t-shirts (BETTER than shop-bought!).
So cute and I love her colour choice 🙂
I think that sort of binding is called a Chanel trim. It’s a nice alternative to ribbing, isn’t it? And it does look lovely.
Thanks Felicity. Chanel trim, I will try and remember that. And yes, I think it’s a fabulous alternative to ribbing 🙂
[…] her another pair of Bubble Pockets Shorts and a Hoops T-shirt. Miss F has just grown out of the first two Hoops T-shirts which were originally Miss B’s. Hand-me-downs are alive and well in our […]