Ottobre Woman 5/2008 No. 8 – Raglan-Sleeve T-Shirt - Muslin

I have two spools of thread that match the olive pants fabric perfectly. However, my closest match for serger thread is black. Of course, serger thread won’t show and therefore it isn’t terribly important, but I really was expecting the thread box to produce a closer color match. The fabric store failed, too. No olive colored serger thread there, either. I’ll try another store tomorrow but I’m feeling like it is going to be black serger thread for the pants.

So, in the meantime, a slight detour. On her last visit, my all-things-sewing enabler, DD#2, had convinced me to order another Ottobre Woman back issue (Autumn/Winter 5/2008). This particular issue was approved as it contains a pencil skirt pattern that she especially likes and there is a coat pattern for me. I’ll help her to sew the skirt the next time she is here.

After the success of the Ottobre inebriated targets t-shirt muslin, I wanted to try the raglan-sleeve t-shirt from this 5/2008 issue. Once again, I traced a size 50. The only change I made was to shorten the sleeves to ¾ length. The fabric came from Fabric.com earlier in the year. Surprisingly, when I looked at my order confirmation, this was not my normal $1.95/yard fabric. I had paid a whopping $4.98/yard for this nylon/lycra rib knit.

This fabric is heavy and very stretchy. So stretchy that I sewed clear elastic into the sleeve/shoulder seams and also into the neckband seam. I used the Bernina embroidery foot, #030, to apply the elastic. I love that little presser foot! While sewing the elastic on, I only had to be concerned with keeping my eye on the seam allowance width. The foot took care of the elastic.

The serger gave me a bit of trouble when serging with the clear elastic on top. It just didn’t want to go. I turned the fabric over so that the elastic was on the bottom and that made the difference. No complaints and no broken needles.

Normally, I would somehow topstitch on or next to a t-shirt neckband. This fabric is not only thick, there is also the addition of that clear elastic. I opted to hand-tack the sleeve seams to the neckband seam. Everything is the way is should be – flat.

I didn’t put any clear elastic into the side seams or the hems. And, before sewing the hems I had experimented on some scraps. Topstitching was a mess, so I tried the blind hemstitch instead. I had to test several combinations of stitch widths and lengths to come up with one that wouldn’t break the thread when the fabric was stretched a bit. The stitches show on the outside, and they look awful, but the hem is strong and it looks better than the stretched-out topstitching.

I am storing my traced patterns from Ottobre, Burda, etc. in one gallon zip storage bags. Along with the pattern, I also include a copy of the instructions for that item. When the garment is complete, I file the bag with my other patterns. So far, that is working. How do you store your traced patterns?