Stripy Emmeline Tee

This is the second Emmeline Tee I have made. The first one I made as a secret Santa gift for a friend, which I wrote about here. But this one I have made for myself :-)

The Emmeline Tee pattern includes 3 versions all of which can be made in woven or knit fabrics, detailed instructions for which are included. I made version 3 for my first attempt at the Emmeline, but this time I decided to make version 1 with the kimono sleeves and turned up cuffs. As with version 3 of the pattern, version 1 only has 3 pattern pieces (front, back, and neckband) so it is pretty quick to cut out the fabric. I cut out a size S, but lengthened it by a good 2 inches. When I made my first Emmeline Tee I found that it only just sat on the top of my jeans waistband. It drives me mad when I have to keep tugging tops down all the time, so for me I wanted to make sure it had enough length in the body that I wouldn't have to do that.

© 2016 Jennifer Richardson

The fabric I used was a black and white striped jersey with a metallic silver thread running through it. I bought it from Stuarts Fabrics on Leicester market for something like £4 per metre. I didn't really pay any attention to what the composition of the fabric was. I tend to buy fabric by how it looks and feels as opposed to paying much attention to what it says on the label (besides the price) and when buying off the market there aren't really any labels attached to the fabrics so I never really know exactly what I'm buying! But with Stuarts Fabrics a lot of the fabrics have been used by retailers and therefore tend to be reasonable quality. The fabric I bought is lightweight jersey and feels nice and soft so works well for a t-shirt.

© 2016 Jennifer Richardson

I started by overlocking all the raw edges of my pattern pieces apart from the neckline. Then it was just a case of sewing the front and back together at the shoulder seams and then up the side seams, attaching the neckband and finishing the hems using a twin needle. For the sleeve cuffs the instructions tell you to hand-stitch these in place. However, I'm not terribly patient when it comes to hand stitching so I finished those by top stitching with a twin needle too! As a finishing touch I added 2 buttons to the cuffs. I found these buttons in John Lewis and thought they were pretty and would finish my t-shirt off nicely. I like them, but my husband thinks they stick up too much!

© 2016 Jennifer Richardson

I was really pleased with the finished result and once again I found the pattern straightforward to follow so I managed to make this t-shirt up in an evening after work! I tried to match the stripes up at the side seams…something you’d think wouldn't be too tricky to do with stripes. In some places I was successful, in other places not so! But the main thing is that the stripes run horizontal and I was very pleased with the stripes around the neckline and neckband.

“I make things with my bear hands” Emmeline Tee

When I drew my friend Jen in our work secret Santa draw my immediate reaction was “YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS”. Jen is a fellow crafter and my initial thought was that she would be easy to buy a gift for. But then when I thought about it I realised I wanted to make sure I did something really good. I knew she would be more than happy if I just bought her some fabric, but at the end of the day that wouldn’t require much effort and she can buy herself fabric anytime. So I started thinking of what else I could do. Jen is known as ‘The Bear’. I remembered a t-shirt I had seen in Asda ages ago that had a bear on it holding tools and it read ‘I fix things with my bear hands’. And it got me thinking whether I could make her a similar t-shirt, but craft themed to read ‘I make things with my bear hands’ instead. Of course I decided that I couldn’t just buy a plain t-shirt to print on, but instead needed to make one from scratch.

I love The Little Tailoress blog and had been looking for an excuse to purchase the Emmeline Tee pattern for some time, but had been trying to resist as I have so many sewing patterns that I have yet to do anything with. But I felt making a t-shirt for Jen gave me the perfect excuse to add this pattern to my collection.

I purchased the PDF version of the pattern. PDF patterns can be a faff to stick together, but then so is tracing a paper pattern, which I try to make myself do so I always have the original to go back to. I do quite like PDF patterns for the reason that you always have a permanent copy that you can print as many times as you like. So if you need a different size, ruin a copy, or want to make any modifications you can just print another copy. Plus, in printing on paper your pattern is more robust than tracing paper.

The Emmeline Tee pattern includes 3 versions all of which can be made in woven or knit fabrics, detailed instructions for which are included. I decided to make version 3 using a grey marl t-shirt jersey I picked up from Lili Fabrics stand at the Stitching, Sewing & Hobbycrafts show at the NEC, Birmingham in November.

Version 3 of the pattern only has 3 pattern pieces (front, back, and neckband). So it was super quick to cut out the fabric. I cut out a size S for Jen, but to the largest size on the hem to give a tiny bit of extra length in the body. When I come to make myself an Emmeline Tee I think I would want a bit more length in the body so will have to lengthen the pattern.

Following the instructions I started by overlocking all the raw edges of my pattern pieces. Then it was just a case of sewing up the side seams, attaching the neckband and finishing the hems and edges using a twin needle. The pattern is so clear and straightforward that it makes up in next to no time.

I enlisted the help of my husband Steve for the design to go on the front as he is very good at graphical stuff and design. So I told him what I wanted and he put it together for me.

Once the t-shirt was made up, next thing I had to try and figure out was how to get it printed. I did quite a lot of research into the various methods of printing. The cheapest is to buy an iron-on transfer. There are many websites that allow you to upload your own design and they will post you the transfer for you to iron onto your t-shirt yourself at home. However, I read that iron-on transfers aren’t really made to last and can perhaps only withstand 4-5 washes. I wanted Jen’s t-shirt to be more durable than this so I looked into other options. I decided that what I wanted was direct to garment printing so set about trying to find somewhere that would be willing to print on my own t-shirt rather than one of theirs. Fortunately I found ExampleUK who happen to be based just a couple of miles away from where I live. They were more than happy to do a one-off print using my design and t-shirt and I was so pleased with the result. I think it looks so professional.

I was soooooo excited about giving my secret Santa gift. I knew Jen would probably guess I was her secret Santa straight away, but I didn’t care as I was just dying to know what she thought of it and she loved it!

Here is the finished article:

© 2016 Jennifer Richardson

I am looking forward to making myself a few versions of the Emmeline Tee and already have fabric lines up to make about 3-4 different versions!