I lost my job in late 2019 and decided to give handmade gifts to my family for Christmas and other gift-giving occasions.
I mean, I had a LOT of time, not a lot of money. And to be quite honest. I have spare fabric.
A LOT of spare fabric.
Gift Shirts for the Boyfriend
So, after making my mother's shirt with the commercial pattern, I started thinking: If the Jalie pattern for a close-fit shirt for women has a symmetrical sleeve. Wouldn't the one for men have one too? I don't know, I don't own one of those patterns. I have used MANY Jalie patterns. And I don't have many issues with them. (Though the instructions for the polo shirt were a bit confusing. But that could have been user error...)
This isn't a Jalie pattern review, but I do want to mention that Jalie has been filling a niche for sewing patterns that the big commercial pattern companies had neglected till really recently. And still, if you want gymnastics, figure skating or similar athletic patterns, Jalie is where it's at. And when you are designing dance costumes, you need stuff that's made to move with you. The major pattern manufacturers have some options but haven't really filled the niche. So, hat's off to you Jalie.
But. I have been learning pattern drafting. I mean I've been manipulating patterns for ages. But I have been learning how to start from scratch and make a pattern from nothing but a blank sheet of paper and body measurements.
So, I wanted to make Aaron (the boyfriend) some shirts for his birthday. Technically, his birthday is in Jan, but I was making these in Dec of 2020 so I'm counting it as my 2020 stuff.
I had already made a few shirts for Aaron from the raglan sleeve Jalie pattern.
I had some time, so I wanted to test my skills at pattern drafting.
The first shirt I made for him was the test shirt. It fit Ok. There were some adjustments in the armpit and neck that I wanted to make. Plus, Aaron is pretty lean. This means he's broader in the shoulders and chest area than he is in the waist.
So, I wanted to modify his pattern sloper to better fit his actual body. Meaning, I wanted to customize a pattern for him to fit him the way he would prefer to be fitted.
And, he likes green, and I didn't really have enough fabric to make a long-sleeved green shirt. So, I re-drafted the sloper and then used it to make a pattern that LOOKS like it's a short sleeve short shirt over the longer shirt with long sleeves.
Also, I modified the standard t-shirt block that I made for him to be longer. He's longer in the torso. I actually used the Jalie pattern as a reference since he liked the length of that so much.
So, take two was a success. Green shirt over black. Now, these, he got to see before his birthday. Cause I wanted to FIT him.
So for his birthday, I made a special shirt.
I used the flatlock stitch for the seams.
Oh, and also, he fixed my serger in early fall. Literally, he spent about an hour working on my serger to get it to properly form a coverstich.
So, I had a working coverstitch. I was able to use this for my Dad's shirts too.
I'm sure there's a lesson I learned in there somewhere.
I think that lesson is "don't let loose looper arms rattle around in your serger when you're sewing at high speed". Probably I should expound on that, but that's a different story. Maybe I'll even tell it sometime.
Anyway, I love this shirt. I think Aaron does too. (He keeps wearing it anyway.)
Side note: Aaron is a watch collector. He has many watches and watch bands. It's his thing.
So, he has a watch that is mostly black, with light numbers and a red second hand. He bought a band that is black and gray stripes, with red pinstripes between the black and gray stripes.
It goes perfectly with his gray, black, and red shirt.
I didn't plan it, but I should pretend I did. 🤣
My last tidbit of information is that, while using the flatloc to sew the gray and black shirt with red stitching, I learned a bit about sewing with a flatlock. And I impart that knowledege in my course on adding details to basic leggings.