Sunday 16 January 2011

Cycling T-shirt retrospective

I worked on my coat further today, but this is such a slow project that I expect looking at all the progress shots would be quite boring. Instead I have on-the-body shots of the cycling t-shirt Christmas present I posted about earlier.
Here is the original t-shirt, from Rapha (expensive cycling shop) in London, next to version 1, in black, which I made after tracing off the original t shirt, adding 1cm seam allowances.
SDC10197

SDC10198
On the back pocket I used a motif that I cut out of an out-grown t shirt belonging to my son (size 4 child's Myer t shirt, 3 or 4 years old).

SDC10199

This was a very simple and rough machine embroidery that appealed greatly to my husband. I think this may be the only item of clothing he has ever bought for any of our children, so I was pretty sure that he would like this on his own t-shirt. I applied this to the back pocket. The t-shirt fabrics are cotton lycra. The first (black)t-shirt was a little big, but I fixed this by putting in the dryer at work on hot. There are advantages to terribly wet weather. Fortunately it shrunk in width rather than length. My husband is slim but tall.
Here is my headless husband in version 2, for which I used slightly larger seam allowances, resulting in a better fit.
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DSCF3125
He has worn both of the t-shirts frequently since I made them, so it was a successful present. Why is man sewing so tricky?

9 comments:

KID, MD said...

Good question!! Man sewing always takes me twice as long and the result isn't always successful. I think my main problem is lack of helpful input from the man...

The cycling shirts are great though! It looks like he likes them.

Ann Made Studio said...

Your version looks great! I also like the motif.

Anonymous said...

I love the machine embroidery! It looks great.

Joy said...

The shirts looks great. He must be pleased to have a high end cycling shirt without the high end price!

Carol said...

Glad to hear things are ok up there. Looks like you've used the time well!

Sharon said...

Great shirts and love the motif. Man sewing, enough said.

MareeAlison said...

I like the shirt. I thought of you recently when I was reading the Tessuti blog http://tessuti.blogspot.com/2011/01/enzyme-washed-linen-mens-shirt.html on men's sewing. On their blog they have a link to some Japanese sewing books with patterns for men. I'm not sure if you look at that blog, so you may find them interesting. They probably cost the earth though.

The Slapdash Sewist said...

Man sewing seems singularly unsatisfying. The boyfriend gets boxers for all occasions, and I enjoy making them because he's willing to wear crazy prints. I don't think he realizes that each pair takes about two hours of fussy flat-felling (nor that I have not yet gotten the crotch right). I don't think I'd ever do anything that will actually be seen!

Tropical Threads said...

KID, MD beat me to what I was going to think as to why man sewing is so difficult!

Nice shirts. I love the style. and the motif :-)