Kwik Sew 3299 with manly embroidery

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have spotted some attempts at manly embroidery. My poor hubby gets very little sewing attention, but this seemed like a fun challenge. I've been playing around with fitness type designs, as Mitch is active in Crossfit.

I was editing this design on my laptop, and Mitch saw it and couldn't stop laughing. But it was a good kind of laughing, and he asked me to put it on a tee shirt. YAY!! Man embroidery!

Here is the design itself. The barbell is from Embroidery Library (you can get it here), although I stitched it out with darker greys. The font is from Etsy, and I purchased it here. I struggled to get the proper stabilization for this design on this fabric! The knit is fairly lightweight and quite stretchy. I test stitched the design out quite a few times before I found a stabilization method that worked. I ended up with two layers of mid-weight cutaway stabilizer hooped with the fabric, then with a layer of water soluble stablilizer floated on top.

The shirt pattern is Kwik Sew 3299. It's been out of print a while. It's a fairly loose fit tee and I think I might go looking for another tee shirt pattern. *Jalie, Cough, Cough* This one has slightly odd proportions.

The neckband is the worst offender. It's weirdly wide. The pattern piece looked odd when I cut it out, so I stitched it with an extra 1/4 inch seam allowance, and it still looks too wide. The sleeves are also slightly short. That actually works for this, since Mitch will wear it to the gym, but for casual wear I think a slightly longer sleeve is more masculine.

Mitch did consent to a photo so you could see how it fits. As I mentioned, this is a workout shirt, so it is intentionally snug. Mitch's broad shoulders make the sleeves look even more disproportionally short. Must order new men's tee pattern. Because there will be more manly embroidery!! I wonder if anyone has digitized something with guns...

Kwik Sew 3299

I'm still working on copying the seam finish on Mitch's fancy running shirts. I made him another, this one with an entirely new technique.

This time, the seam is serged in the typical fashion (right sides together) so that the seam allowance is on the inside of the garment, then the seam allowance is coverstitched down from the wrong side, allowing the loopers to show on the garment right side. The needle stitching flattens the serged seam on the inside without adding too much bulk. I used matching red thread in the serger and coverstitch needles, and black thread in the coverstitch looper. Mitch likes a decorative stitch on the outside, and that seems to be the way most RTW running shirts are done.

I also hemmed with the coverstitch loopers on the right side. I'm not sure I love that. This fabric is a wicking polyester jersey from Seattle Fabrics. It's nice and light and feels very breathable, but it was the devil to sew. It was slippery and strtechy and generally did not want to behave.

My coverstitch machine particularly disliked it. The feed dogs had a hard time gripping the fabric, so the stitch length was all over the place. She also skipped stitches every time a seam crossed, which you can see at the sleeve/shoulder intersection above. I'm not sure how well this will hold up over time. So far, it is the closest appearing approximation to the RTW shirt, but I'm not sure it will end up being as sturdy, since I had so much trouble getting even stitches. I think I'll take a little break before sewing more of these, to see which finish Mitch likes best over time. In a few months, he'll probably be needing something with long sleeves. That'll be novel!

Kwik Sew 3299

I cheated on my bellbottoms, but only long enough to stitch up a long promised running shirt for my sweetie.

I've had this "Dryflex" wicking polyester knit for quite a while, and poor Mitch has waited very patiently for his shirt.

I mean, what was my deal. It takes very little time to whip up a tee shirt, which is all this is. I used Kwik Sew 3299, which I have made for him before. It's a great basic tee pattern, although I will say that it isn't as broad in the shoulders as Mitch is. Last time I made it, he was a medium, but he has subsequently lost a significant amount of weight. Since this is a running shirt, we wanted a close fit, so I made a small. It fits well through the body, but is quite snug in the shoulders as you can see from the rear view.

I'm wondering if the Jalie men's tee pattern has a more athletic fit. I may get it to try out for next time. I have several other lengths of technical knit fabric.

I did get fancy and flatlock all the seams and coverstitch the hems with the looper on the public side. This is similar to the way his RTW running shirts are constructed, although not exactly the same.

Here is the reverse. You can see that the flatlock makes a "ladder" of stitches on the reverse side. I used the three needle coverstitch because I think it has the coolest looper side. This is the part that is so different from his RTW shirts. On those, both sides look like "looper" sides. I suspect there is a special industrial machine that does that. Anyone know?
Although I did spend an hour or so on this shirt, it was but a brief fling from my bellbottoms.

Here is the right front pants with the godet in and topstitched. The pockets aren't stitched down yet, but how cute are they?!? I'm loving the curved belt loop as well. These are so fun! Thanks to everyone for your input about the topstitching thread. I went with the rust, which was the unanimous favorite. I really like how it looks with this denim.

Kwik Sew 3299 - Star Wars style

Tomorrow is the last day of the "Made Maids" Dana and Rae's "Celebrate the Boy" month.  I sew a lot for my little boy, so today I decided to celebrate my big boy.

And how better to celebrate than with a Darth Vader head on a tee shirt!?  I was in luck because Kwik Sew patterns are actually on sale at Hancock for the first time EVER.  We've had such good luck with KS for Mitch, that I decided to get him a basic tee pattern, as the couple of men's tee patterns that I have aren't terribly great.  This one is awesome!  The fit is pretty much perfect and the style is just right.  Of course, it has the usual fabulous KS directions, although I don't really need them for a basic tee.

Here is Lord Vader, up close and personal.  I think he looks a little cross eyed, but what's a girl to do?  Mitch likes him.  I used a freezer paper stencil technique to add Vader to the shirt.  It is based on this post by Dana at MADE.

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For any who were wondering what my sweetheart was doing in Salt Lake, he was interviewing for a Fellowship (in Pulmonology and Critical Care) there at U of U.  He had a great time and was very impressed with the Fellowship and the hospitals there.  Of course, the mountains were the crowning glory!  There is a chance that we will end up there, but we won't know until June, and there are a few other programs that we have to check out first.  I'll keep you posted!