Sweater Knit Finlayson

It's Tim's birthday month, and I've promised him a bunch of hand-made gifts... here's the first one out of the gate!

Dude Sewing: Fossil Gray Ponte Finlayson Sweater

I have been meaning to make Tim the Thread Theory Finlayson Sweater for the longest time... finally, a reason to make it and a great fabric from Fabric Mart!

Pattern Hack and Tutorial: Flat Elastic Waist Lazo Trousers

I am really excited to share this pattern hack and tutorial with you today! So excited that I wanted to share it immediately, so it's jumping the queue ahead of several other projects...

I've hacked Thread Theory's recently released Lazo Trousers to have a flat elastic waistband!

Dude Sewing: Linen Jutland Shorts

Shorts! Tim had a request for new shorts, which coincided with this year's Shorts on the Line competition/celebration over at Imagine Gnats and Kollabora. Kismet, I tell you.

Thread Theory Camas Blouse in Mod Flowers

I snapped up the Camas blouse, the newest pattern from Thread Theory (and their first pattern for women!), right when it came out. I've enjoyed working with their other patterns and thought the style of the blouse was really flattering, too. Also: I am a pattern junkie. Welp... Merry Christmas to me!

Dude Sewing: Striped Strathconas

Tim and I are not really doing true gifts for each other this Christmas.  We are forgoing them in favor of going diving in Bali for a couple days. Wooo! Life is hard.

Comox Trunks!

Like I said, I've been slowing making my way through the Thread Theory catalog of patterns for men (my Newcastle here and my Strathcona here!). When they announced a sew-along for their latest pattern, Comox Trunks, it was perfect timing for me to join in!  Sewing mens underwear is a little weird, maybe, but fun anyway!  And potentially useful, since this is the type of undies Tim wears anyway.

(PS, as an aside, it's totally worth clicking the Comox Trunks link to check out the male models... wowza.)

the front

My fabric for this pair, sort of a wearable muslin, is actually an upcycled skirt of mine: a 6 gore Target skirt that I never wear anymore.  The fabric is 95% rayon and 5% spandex: super soft, good stretch and recovery.  I had 2 problems using this fabric: finding the grain and ending up with a butt-crack seam due to fabric limitations.  The elastic is from a pair of Tim's underwear that he was planning to toss. I just hacked the waistband off and repurposed it for these Comox trunks.

Understandably, I couldn't convince Tim to model these new undies for the internet.  There is not enough craft beer in the world (craft beer being his modeling bribe of choice).

the back

My thoughts on/adjustments to the pattern: 

- The pattern was surprisingly easy and very quick to put together... somehow I thought it would be more complicated and scary.

- The only speedbump I had was attaching the waistband... lining up the right side of the trunks with the wrong side of the waistband with a consistent amount of overlap while also easing in the excess trunk fabric was a beast.  Mine is a bit of a mess.  I think it may have something to do with my repurposed waistband. But this pair is definitely a rough draft/muslin, so hopefully I'll get it right next time.

- I customized Tim's trunks as described in the sew-along: I removed the "fly exit." Tim said he doesn't use it and not including it simplified the sewing process, so win-win, right?  I kept it a double layer, as recommended.  Worked out just fine!

- Other than that, the fit seems quite good!  The only challenge for me will be finding the proper fabric and elastic here in Bangkok.  I may have to place some online orders.

Natty Newcastle

I am working my way through Thread Theory's catalog of men's sewing patterns in order of difficulty... I started with the Strathcona t-shirt for Tim and now I've stepped it up a notch and made the Newcastle cardigan, which is the pattern that drew me to Thread Theory in the first place.  It's so cool... there is nothing like it out there, certainly not amongst the Big 4 pattern makers, whose men's catalogs seem to consist mainly of a couple button-downs, some pajamas and the occasional muumuu/dashiki/cult robe.

I used some charcoal grey ponte de roma as the main fabric and some complementary navy for the contrasting yoke and shoulder panels.  Both fabrics are part of the Sew Classic line at Joann... be careful, though, as some of the ponte there is 100% poly and might be the worst thing I have ever touched. Shudder.  But the stuff I used (a rayon/poly blend) is super soft and easy to work with.  Buttons are also from Joann, as is the stretch interfacing.  Warning: stretch interfacing only stretches one way... I couldn't fit all the pieces on what I had, so I had to cut the collar pieces the non-stretchy way, figuring they wouldn't get too much stress.

Topstitching... woop!

I think my Newcastle is looking pretty good!  It's certainly not perfect, but definitely wearable.  Tim seems to like it, which is the key.   Now that I've seen it on him (and tried it on a little while sewing it), I kinda want one myself.  I might have to take a hint from Morgan's tutorial for altering the pattern for the ladies and sew myself one!

Tim requires a beer to pose for pictures.  Not unlike other bloggers who ply their children with candy and stuffed animals, I must ply my husband with craft brews:

Here are my pattern notes, none of which are particularly groundbreaking.  Most of them echo things other bloggers have said:

- I sewed up view A with the smaller collar and the contrasting back yoke and shoulder plackets

- I didn't interface the back yoke or shoulder plackets for fear of excess bulk

- Speaking of bulk: sewing the body, collar and facings all together was a beast! 5 layers of fabric and at least 3 of interfacing (there could have been 1 more, had I interfaced the yoke and plackets)... whoa!

- The sleeve caps were super hard to ease in... lots of extra fabric; mine are okay but a little ripple-y

- I was a little bit confused about the part in the instructions where you deal with the facing and hem... I think I could have used one more illustration.  I wasn't sure what exactly to trim.

- The cuffs are a wee bit large, methinks, disproportionately so... next time I might lengthen the sleeves and shorten the cuffs

- Buttonholes were tough:  I used my automatic buttonhole foot, but had to manually pull the placket through because the feed dogs were not interested in making the fabric move

- I think next time I would use a slightly stiffer fabric like sweatshirt fabric... the ponte might have had a little too much drape for this design and, when combined with the heavy collar and facings, makes the cardigan hang funny when it's not buttoned:

Dude Sewing: Strathcona T-Shirt

Be warned: this might be the world's wordiest post about sewing a t-shirt.

I do a lot of sewing for myself, a lot of sewing for little ones, and occasionally some sewing for other adults, but not a whole lot of dude sewing.  My first attempt at sewing for Tim, a plaid Colette Negroni, had mixed results: I am super proud of my effort and workmanship on the shirt, but Tim never wears it. Sadly, the camp-shirt cut is just not his style.  He prefers more fitted buttondowns.  Sigh.

Not to be dismayed, I am trying my hand at dude sewing again. Something from Thread Theory, a Canadian pattern designer specializing in menswear.  Martha got us an array of their patterns for Christmas (Strathcona, Jedediah, Newcastle... thanks, Martha!), all of which I am excited to sew, but I figured I would start with the simplest and most likely to be worn: the humble t-shirt.
Strathcona it is!

I didn't have any dude-appropriate knit fabric in my stash, so I headed to Bangkok's Chinatown (Yaowarat) to seek some out.  So far the only store I've found selling knits is L.GEmini, which sells all sorts of pretty knits off of absolutely enormous rolls.  I ended up choosing a heather grey with little black nubby flecks throughout:

Turns out they sell the fabric by the kilo, rather than by length... strange (see the scale in the photo below)!  I had no idea how much fabric was in 1 kilo, so I had the guy measure the length, too, so I knew I was getting what I needed: turned out to be 2.7 meters.

Also, the knit fabric was in tube form! I suppose the machine that makes the fabric knits in the round? In any case, I was pumped because that meant I had 2 folds on which to place the pattern (it's actually meant to be cut in a single layer, but I folded the pattern in half).  I was able to squeeze out the t-shirt from very little fabric:

Anywho, back to Strathcona:

• I cut a size L, as Tim seemed to be in between M and L (more like his shoulders and chest were closer to L and waist closer to M).  L was a good choice since the pattern is quite slim-fitting.
• However, after I basted things together and Tim tried it on, we realized that the sleeves (and the body, to a lesser extent) were crazy long on him (see below).  I ended up cutting off about 4 inches from each sleeve and 1 inch off the bottom hem. I folded the hem and sleeves up 3/4ths of an inch before hemming them with my double needle.
• The seam allowances included in the pattern are quite large for a knit pattern: 5/8ths of an inch.  It makes me wonder if next time I could just cut the M and use a 1/4 inch seam allowances since I will be sewing it using the serger?  Time to measure the pattern.

Long sleeves much?

In any case, Tim likes his new t-shirt!  Check it out in action below (I loooove the auto-GIF function in Google+)!  I imagine it'll get a lot of wear here in Bangkok, where Tim's weekend and evening uniform is shorts and a t-shirt.  I guess the shorts part of the equation is next!