Frankie Baseball Tee in Isewlation

This garment was the first thing I sewed during lockdown. That was just seven weeks ago, but emotionally speaking, it feels like a whole year may as well have passed. Seven weeks ago I was definitely in shock, but also trying hard to make the most of the situation, and had a Blitz-era, 'What would Nella Last do?' spirit about me. I decided it would be a great opportunity to tackle my fabric stash, and make what I could from the things I already owned safe from the temptations of new fabric, seeing as I wasn't going to work. Pat was still at going to work during that first week, so I had decided to carve out an hour to spend sewing each day, when I would plonk the kids in front of some CBeebies and give myself a little break.

But the following week brought a less chipper attitude about the whole lockdown/global pandemic/thousands of people dying/the world being broken situation. Plus, Pat had to start working from home, so my sewing area became a permanent 'office' set-up in the daytime, as our bedroom is the only place we can shut the door on the kids and be able to concentrate. No daytime sewing for me anymore.

I've still be working through my stash, and making some great things, but it's all been in the evenings when I'm exhausted and sadly it feels like more of a slog. Anyways, I'm soooooo lucky in so many regards. Including having this great new baseball tee! (See how I brought things round there? Pretty smooth, eh?!)

Fabric:

You may recognise this fabric from a previous creation. I used some of this amazing hands-print interlock a couple of years ago to make a Freya top, and I had a weird-shaped piece left over that was burning a hole in my stash. The interlock came from Cotton Bee, a fabric printing service based in Poland that is similar to Spoonflower. They kindly offered me a voucher to test out their process and products to help promote them amongst my readers. I had been dwelling on how best to use the funny-shaped leftovers, and it eventually dawned on me that I could combine it with something else to eek a new, adult-sized garment out of the situation. 

This black knit, also an interlock, has been lurking in my stash for sometime too. In fact, I cannot reliable tell you how it got in there, or when. It's thinner than the hands-print, which concerned me a little, but they seem to behave well together. The black interlock is particularly soft and makes this garment the very definition of 'secret pyjamas'. 

Pattern:

I can't see a baseball tee and not think of my best friend. We've both been fans of them since the 90s, and she still has one or two, I believe. However, when I first received the Stretch! book by Tilly, the Frankie baseball t-shirt (despite being one of my very favourite names!) wasn't one of the patterns that jumped out at me. Then, more recently, one of the women who attends the sewing class I teach made a couple of fantastic Frankies, and I was sold. The fit looked great, casual and comfy but flattering. It's funny that I ended up making two garments from the same fabric, both using patterns from the same sewing book. Yet they perform quite different functions in my wardrobe. The Freya looks and feels a bit more formal to wear. It works very well under pinafores. Yet the Frankie definitely wants to be paired with jeans.

To make this Frankie, I made my usual pattern alterations. I blended between sizes, going up a size for the waist and hips, and I folded out 2cm from the length of the body to account for my short-waistedness. The only other monkey-ing that this project required of me, was to create a seam in the back because because my limited fabric wouldn't allow me to cut it in one piece. You can see the join in the image above, but I doubt you would have noticed unless I pointed it out. No offence. 

Thoughts:

So this will probably always be my 'Isewlation' garment, when we were all a bit excited in the early days of lockdown about how much sewing my might possibly get to do. Although there has been, and will be other garments made during this time, this is the one that I will remember as having been made in the strangest of circumstances. Whilst I was making this top, I would have been shocked to learn that almost two months later, little has changed. Apart from having made over 150 face masks. Also from my stash! But that's another post. 

Bibi Pinafore Business

Like so many other sewers, it would seem (I just wrote 'seam' there at first!), I fell hard for the pinafore variation of the Bibi skirt pattern from Tilly's Stretch book. However, it wasn't on my 'sewing project priority' list until, A) MMMay made me face the fact that my previous denim-look stretch skirt had to go and, B) I was looking for a way to repurpose the fabric I salvaged from a recent failed project. A plan was born...

Fabric:

You may have noticed by now that the majority of the new fabric that comes into my life these days comes from Fabric Godmother. This is because I work for them from time to time, so have the opportunity to get up close and personal with their inventory, which is invariably both gorgeous excellent quality. After helping out at one of their recent open days, some of this denim jersey (pictured below) came home with me. Personally, I'm not sure if it makes more sense to call it a denim-look knit, or a stretch denim. It looks like a woven denim, but has the four-way stretch properties of some kind of knit fabric. Either way, it looks amazing and is clearly going to be really comfortable to wear. 

(Image source: Fabric Godmother)

A couple of months ago I made the (in hindsight foolish) decision to have another whirl at the True Bias Hudson pants pattern. I had a previous failed attempt at that pattern four years ago, which, I surmised, was a FAIL because I used a 2-way rather than 4-way stretch fabric. This denim-knit-whatever-you'd-call-it definitely fit the four-way stretch bill, and I had dreams of creating a cool and clever jogging/jeans hybrid that I'd never want to take off. Except that didn't happen and the whole thing became a massive FAIL. Possibly due to the thickness of this fabric and/or choosing the wrong size on the pattern, or whatevs. Now I've been burnt twice, I'm going to leave the Hudson pants pattern well alone going forwards, and stick to jeggings styles for my super comfy bottoms unless persuaded otherwise. Anyways once I realised the Hudsons were going to be a FAIL, I cut them up to reclaim the fabric from the front and back legs and the waistband piece. I then made the most of the MMMay celebration discount codes and bought an additional metre of this fabric so that I'd have enough for the Bibi pinafore project.

Pattern:

The Bibi skirt is really cleverly drafted, consisting of one main skirt panel piece that you cut out four of. Once stitched together, the skirt is worn on the body so there are no side seams at all. You also need two waistband pieces that are faced (plus two bibs and two straps if you plan to make the pinafore version). The reason I had to get rid of my stretch denim skirt during MMMay was because my waist measurement has grown a bit. Therefore, for the Bibi, I started out by tracing the size 5 at the waist grading down to the size 4 for the hips, and held off cutting out the waistband pieces until I could check the fit. I basted the skirt panels together (two of which I squeezed out of the back leg pieces of the failed Hudson pants) and a quick fitting showed that I could proceed with no further alterations needed. Because the denim knit is quite thick, I used some plain black cotton-lycra knit I'd recently bought from Girl Charlee to cut the waistband facings and the reverse of the bib section. 

Having stalked the #bibipinafore hashtag on Instagram, I'd seen than some people's versions gaped a little at the top edge of the bib. It seemed that most of those women were perhaps fuller busted and although I wasn't sure where I stand on that particular spectrum, just in case I decided to make the width of the top of my bib section slighter narrower (1cm each side) in an attempt to avoid any gaping. I also positioned my straps (which I've made about 1cm wider than the instructions in the book suggest, FYI) so that they joined the top of the bib at an angle rather than coming straight up so hopefully that would help too.   

Thoughts:

I'm very pleased with this pinafore! When wearing it (as I am now), I feel more put-together and more stylish than I usually do. It seems to hug my shape nicely, but the thickness of the fabric skims over much of the lumps and bumps. And the best of all? It's crazy comfy. If I had to pick metaphorical holes though, I'd flag up that the skirt seams show the white lycra content of the fabric more than I'd prefer, and the bib gapes a bit at the sides (but not at the top!). 

I love wearing it with my hands print Freya top, as I am in these pics, but I've decided I prefer it with trainers more than with these shoes for a more casual vibe. I'm looking forward to working out some outfits to wear it in cooler weather, and I can definitely see myself making the skirt pattern, if not the full on pinafore version, again in the future when the right fabric comes my way.