And another project is complete!
Truth be told, I finished the Chambray Shirt about two weeks ago. I just had a delay in preparing this post, since I have been away in Florida for a week at Walt Disney World and the Kennedy Space Center.
Tag Archives: kwik-sew-2000
The Chambray Shirt Lives! (Part 1)
I’m pleased to report that the Chambray shirt project I started SIX months ago (the first appearance of the fabric on this blog happened in July) is now in progress!
In fact, as I type it’s close to completion – all that remains now are topstitching on the cuffs, buttonholes and buttons. But I do have a few notes to share.
Thread again
For this project I auditioned quite a lot of blue threads, but none of them were quite right. This Chambray print has a steel gray tone to it that none of my thread seemed to match.
The Orange Flannel Shirt, Part 2
The Orange Flannel Shirt is finished! Overall, I’m pleased with the way it turned out.
A Thread Scare
I bought a sampler pack of Gutermann threads from Joann’s with one of their famous 50% off coupons. It has 20 or so colors in it, including a shade of orange that perfectly matched my shirt fabric.
The problem is the spools have 100 yards (meters?) of thread, which is not enough for a decent sized project.
After getting the main body and sleeves together, I knew I was running out of thread. After finishing attaching and topstitching the cuffs, with the bottom hem and buttonholes remaining, this is how much thread I had left.
The Orange Flannel Shirt, Part 1
Hello everyone! I hope your holidays have been peachy keen so far.
My Black Friday Haul
In the midst of the unbelievable San Francisco Black Friday shopping crowds, I stopped at Britex Fabrics to check out their 30% off Black Friday sale. I scored four yards of 32-inch wide Japanese-made selvedge denim at $13/yard (after discount). This will be a future ‘hipster jeans’ project.
The Chambray Comfy Shirt, Part 5: Muslins complete
Hello everyone.
I’m sorry for leaving you all hanging at the end of the last installment. Besides all the challenges I knew I was going to face, my company was purchased two weeks after I started my new job. So now, I work for GoPro, makers of action cameras used by surfers, skiers, and other extreme-sports enthusiasts.
In the meantime, I haven’t forgotten about my Chambray Comfy shirt project. It moves along, albeit slowly because it’s been harder to find time and energy to devote to it.
More Goodies
One perk of the job is that I am now the proud owner of a top-of-the-line GoPro Hero3+ video camera. Even before the buyout, I had been toying with the idea of doing some videos. I’m not sure the GoPro is the best thing for doing the kinds of closeups you need for instructional videos – it’s really intended for capturing expansive, wide-angle views of action sequences. But it does have a great deal of control over the types of video it can shoot, and I might try to do some “Extreme Sewing” clips with it soon.
The Second Muslin
But this weekend, I finally got my second muslin finished. As you might recall, this muslin was done using the Medium version of the pattern (Kwik Sew 2000) so I could fit it against Jim and decide which version I should work from for the alterations.
And since I had a good idea the pattern would end up wearable for myself, as-is, I made one of my famous “wearable muslins” – a fully finished shirt that is as much for wearing, and practicing technique, as fitting.
Construction Notes
One goal with this muslin was to try out a new placket design. I didn’t like the sleeve placket that came with the pattern, and so used the sleeve placket pattern and construction method from David Coffin’s book, Shirtmaking.
