In Which I Make Some T-shirts. Woo. Hoo.

The Story:

Ok, so I can not think of one single solitary thing to write about that is remotely entertaining. I am… bored. Bored with sewing, bored with writing, bored with… everything. The long bleak insignificance of it all looms up across the never ending darkness…

OK, so I’m not in the greatest of moods today. I am in a state of general irritation. This is probably due to several things, like Christmas (yuck), winter darkness (yuck yuck) and the fact that this house makes my feet perpetually cold (yuck yuck brrrr). It’s also almost certainly due to the fact that yesterday was the fifth, the FIFTH time I have taken a day off only to have my dear darling beloved husband be home all day too. If he is home the next time I take a day off he is very likely to become my late beloved husband. Seriously. I’m only 41. I’m sure I can get remarried. Widows are appealing. People feel sorry for them and set them up with handsome widowers. No really. They do.

The last time I was completely alone for more than 90 minutes was over two years ago. I kid you not.

So on my last day off of the year I got virtually nothing accomplished (hence my general state of irritation). The only thing I finished were two of the long-sleeve t-shirts that I had already cut out for TLo. Here they are:

The Boring Details:

I used Ottobre 6-2008-20, which is the shirt version of the Bubble Dress I made earlier this week.

This shirt comes with or without the shirred front panel, but I decided that if I was going to convince TLo to wear it I would have to add something “fancy” or there was just no hope. I also made a change to the sleeves. The original has a gathered bell-shaped sleeve, but I want The Big One to be able to wear these next year which means right now the sleeves are too long for TLo and she has to be able to roll them up.

Instead of the bell sleeve pattern I overlaid the sleeve from Ottobre 1-2009-18, which has a narrow straight sleeve. Fortunately, the two sleeves must have been drafted from the same block because despite one being a raglan and the other a set-in sleeve, the slope of the cap is identical. I just overlaid the raglan part and folded under the bell part to make one straight raglan sleeve. I pinned them together and cut the fabric that way.

That picture is especially ugly but you can see the line-up of the two caps. I could have just drafted a straight portion to the existing sleeve but this was easier since I’m making the Ottobre 1-2009-18 this week too. I already had both these sleeve patterns traced and cut out, so by overlaying them I avoided having to trace another one. I’m just that lazy. It took me roughly triple the time to type out this description as it did for me to overlay the patterns and cut the sleeves.

The Conclusion:

The shirt is a little snug on TLo but that was my intention since sometimes she’ll be wearing these under her short-sleeved tunics.

So there you go.

Ta da.

T-shirts.

Go Bears.

(And that, gentle readers, was a “Fargo” reference. Now we know I’m crabby because I almost never quote “Fargo” unless I’m grumpy. “That there is what you’d call a ‘defensive wound’.” See? Crabby. Of course, this makes more sense when you can hear my lovely Minnesota accent. You’ll just have to imagine.)

Bubbles

I have to say right off the bat that bubble dresses are not my favorite thing. In fact, until about three days ago I would have said that I was somewhat dogmatic about the evils of The Bubble Skirt. I mean, do we really want to wear something that looks like it was baked in a patisserie? It doesn’t work for brides, who could be reasonably given some allowance for wearing the ridiculous on a day when they have agreed to stand up in front of 250 people and declare their undying love like some kind of Disney character amid giant floral sprays and cooing doves. It definitely won't work for a day at the office. The fact that the word "bubble" is fundamental to this style of clothing should tip us off that it is too cute. Too stylized. Just plain trying too hard to be a Look. The same could be said for "Pixie Stix dresses" and "Kuddly Kitten shoes". Or whatever.

Now granted, part of my hatred of bubble skirts comes from a bad sort of acid-trip flashback to my youth in the mid-80s, when music was made by computers, underwear was considered a valid form of blouse and skirts were all bubbled. Give me a minute. I have to clear my head from the horror-filled memories. Ack. Who ever told Prince that he should wear a purple jumpsuit and jerry-curl his hair within a inch of it's life should be shot.

However. Last week I received a catalog from Chasing Fireflies. I like this catalog because it's filled with the most outrageously-priced children's clothes that are things that I could (if I got around to it) make myself. I usually take a quick look through the catalog to see what crazy $150 tulle skirts they have this month.

Enter The Bubble Dress. Now, you may or may not have picked up by now that TLo is quite the little princess. If it's pink and fluffy and totally over-the-top it's hers. She's also quite the little catalog shopper and so in the interest of keeping her occupied while I do something more fun than entertaining her, I let her peruse the catalogs when they come in. Last week she found The Bubble Dress in the Chasing Fireflies catalog.

(note: clicking on the photo will take you to ChasingFireflies.com)

-sigh-

Fine. I happen to own several bubble-dress patterns courtesy of the good people at Burda World of Fashion and Ottobre. I decided I could put aside my bubble dress convictions for a while and make a few cutesy dresses for The Princess while she still young enough to get away with them. But because I was in a hurry (I still have lots of practical long-sleeve t-shirts to make for her), I decided to use this pattern: Ottobre 6-2008-19.

It looked like something she could probably wear to school (in place of one of the t-shirts that making it would stop me from completing). I thought, “It’s not too much bubble, so it should be ok for everyday wear.”

Apparently I was right. It's not remotely "too much " bubble. In fact, I defy you to figure out that it's a bubble at all.

I'm not sure what the deal is, but this is the second velour knitwear item that I've made from Ottobre that hasn't gone well for me. I find this overly disappointing because generally I've come to expect great things from each and every Ottobre pattern I use. But this dress is a bit of a stretchy mess, to be blunt. It's entirely possible that I'm just not very good at sewing knit velour.

Plus, it’s not very full so I personally think the hem looks odd. It does actually look quite a bit like the photo in the magazine, I was just sort of hoping that their photo didn’t show the bubble-ness to best advantage. Apparently it actually just looks like that.

Don't get me wrong, TLo was over the moon with this and asked me four times while I was sewing it if it was ready yet. She did not one time, not once, argue about her clothes this morning which is virtually unheard of. So all in all this was successful from the point of view that TLo loves it. It's even teal, not pink, which despite being one of her really good red-head "autumn" colors, she doesn't normally like to wear. However, I'm disappointed enough with it that I feel obligated to make another bubble skirt (from another pattern) that's a bit more... well... bubbly.

I can’t believe I just said that.