Like the Wardrobe Contest I decided to take the approach to do the most intricate shirts first and go towards the easiest. That almost worked. Turns out number three was the most time consuming as it's the first time I worked with Bernina Design Works. The Crystal Works was a breeze but the Paint Works had a bit of a learning curve. The good thing was I had a lot of white knit fabric from a recent Michael's Fabrics bundle so I did have the opportunity to play a bit. Now I feel I've got it and there will be no stopping me in the future!
I based this on the Bernina My Label T shirt pattern that has served me quite well. The one big modification I did was a full bust adjustment. I've never thought that to be needed before but it made a big difference in the way the front lays. I used Louise Cutting's technique from her Threads Insiders Industry Techniques #4. It's also on the Thread's Insider site which I find very handy when I don't have the disc with me. This is a really good series for a more experience sewist as it goes through some very useful techniques. Not really beginner level though.
Well here is the first one:
I got some rather thin yellow rayon knit in the bundle and since yellow is not an everyday color for me I though beach coverup! Our PA house is across the street from the lake so I'm not particularly comfortable walking around in just my swimsuit. I took my basic T, lengthened it, put a V neck on it and shortened the sleeves. I could not resist embroidering the silly crab on the hem. Of course I had to take the picture at the lake on Cyber Seas.
For the next one I lengthened the shirt, made it with slits on the side, made it sleeveless and added the embroidery from Bernina's Tuscan Garden collection using the Mega Hoop on my Bernina 630. This was another fabric from my Michael's Fabrics bundle. This one was a little beefier. I thought this was a good Summer dress and something that can be dressed up or down.
The third one was the basic shirt but I embellished the sleeves with Paint works and Crystal Works. This had to be done on my B580 as it's the only machine I've got that's capable of using this program. The collections was Bernina's Loop-D-Loop which I thought looked like fun.
The Edding pens that came with Paint Works ran out pretty fast so I bought a whole bunch of Tuskineko pens in all kinds of colors from Amazon. They came highly recommended from the Design Works Yahoo group. I then punched the template for the crystals using the Crystal Works program and made four sets, 2 each for the sleeves. It was a lot of fun and I can see wanting to use this more in the future!
The forth one was a basic T with the neck scooped a bit and out of the fabulous nicely heavy wool knit from Mood. I'm not wishing Summer away so quickly but this is going to a nice sweater for when the weather gets colder.
The fifth one also fell out of my sequence on complexity idea. I was going to see if I had time for this at the end - the requirement was four but I shot for six. This cotton knit fabric came from G Street and it's a nice substantial weight. I took one of the curved rulers I got with my pattern design kit from Wawak and made the curves using the ruler. I then faced them and trimmed the facing down. My nice new Babylock cover stitch did a very good job of following the curves to cover. Then I used some very small black buttons to tack the sleeves together. The neck on this one was scooped a bit as well.
Here's the sixth one. I didn't get the cashmere knit fabric from Mood in time so into the stash I went. I found this wild knit fabric I got from the G Street remnant pile years ago and I though dress! I can always use a casual dress! I lengthened the shirt but 12 inches and "ruched" the sleeves a bit. For the ruching I zigzaged over the round elastic and then pulled it tighter. Voila! Instant ruching!
So I made it! Six shirts this quickly makes a very busy month. Wish me luck!
