Selfish Sewing Week: Tons of fall Renfrew

In order to remedy my long sleeves tees condition in my wardrobe (I only had 1 store brought pc so far... LOL!) I decided to factory produce Renfrew tees. I had purchased yards of jersey knit from girlcharlee.com months back for the renfrews but when I sat down and tried to start cutting the fabrics, the stripes matching and the slinkiness of the knits put me off and they all got chunked back into the stash.

This time round, I got so desperate I had made up my mind to get started with them with a few tips from other sewists.
Due to the slinkiness of the knit fabric, I had a lot of problem in keeping them to sit nicely on the fold for me to cut them up. So I changed my pattern pcs instead. I traced the pattern pieces of the bodice front and back on the fold of a big baking paper. So I ended up with this:

Then I placed the pattern pieces of the knit making sure the front n back bodice sides seams are aligned with the correct stripes. Using Crayola washlable marker, I then traced the pcs again onto the fabric. The cutting process took way longer than usual but I am glad I did it, cos the end products look more professionally made with all the stripes matching!

Ohya, when I am sewing up the pcs, I used pin basting to align the stripes as well. And because my overlocker cutting blade is a gone case since day 1 (it's a long story, shall reserve it for another post. I broke the blades the day I got it), I used straight stitches to stitch the 5/8 seams first, then trimmed the seams down to 1/4 inches then I used my serger to serge the seams. A lot of extra time taken I know, any one knew where I can get a replacement blade for brother overlocker ?

 

This is the first tee I finished. As a mummy of 2 boys, I figured mid sleeves will suits me more as it will be easier to carry out my daily routines and duties without the need to keep rolling up my sleeves. This is the first time I made it in cowl neck version too! I love it!

 

 

Hohooho... C the matching stripes? Even the sleeves under arm seams matches too! I am so proud of myself:) Whee!

 

 

 

Sorry I got too carried away playing with the cowl until I became a potential sadako...

 

 

This is the second tee using the remnant knit. I cut the bands vertically as I had to make do with the remaining yardage I had.

 

This matches perfectly too!

 

I think I got too excited with how comfy and versatile the tees are, I immediately dug out my other navy stripes jersey knit and cut out another 2 renfrews as well.

 

 

 

Matchie matchie!.

 

Sorry for the photo bombing in this post. I think I should stop on my renfrews and start on other projects before my readers get bored to death. HA!

 

Thanks for stopping by:

XOXO Ashley