Doing the T-Shirt Mash

My sister a-ster started something on her blog a while ago called the Monthly Mashup.  You're encouraged to mix two or more patterns together to create a new piece of clothing and then share.  So far, she's pretty much featured clothes that she makes for Beanster, so in my mind, I was thinking it had to be kids clothes.  DUH.

It's the internet.  No rules are enforced, right?  I could mash potatoes and share it and what could she do?

But, until recently, I hadn't made any clothing, so I wasn't really into the whole mashup thing.

And then I discovered kitschycoo, knits and both the comino cap top and the lady skater dress.  And all hell broke loose in my sometimes creative brain.

While I like the comino cap top, I wasn't thrilled with the cap sleeves or the neckline.  I LOVED the neckline and the sleeves of the Lady Skater dress, but the option for the top by itself wasn't there.  I had already thought I could just merge the two and my sister confirmed it when she was like "just match them at the waist..." and I knew it would be a breeze because they are very similar from the middle of the top on down.

And voila, my new master plan.  I had decided on the length for the comino cap, so the only thing I had to do here was merge the lady skater top to the top of it.

 I love the red.  It's kind of a faded red, but the best choice at the fabric store. 

 The sleeves are just the right length for me and I love both the sleeve edge and the neckline edge.  They go in beautifully.

And when you topstitch, I just think it looks fantastic.  The bands match the openings so well, there's not much of a worry about accidentally gathering the sleeves or the front/back.

Ok, forget about the shirt, what is the niceness that my hair was doing here?  I feel like it usually looks ratty when I whip it back like this (my signature 'do) but the light must have been just right...

 K-ster is going to have to change the angle from which he takes pictures because my upper back looks enormous at this angle.

Just the right amount of looseness without being droopy.  I'm not a snug knit wearer, so this mashup really combined the best of all worlds!

I was really struggling with hemming my knit creations until I was finally able to get my hands on a twin stretch needle.

While Joann fabrics carries this brand, for some reason, my local store does not have this model and the women had never heard of a stretch twin needle.  I knew they existed and my sister told me that in her store, they are in a weird location, so I told my local people where it is in her store, but they said they didn't have them at all.  So, I resorted to finding them somewhere online.

I truly believe this has solved my hemming issues.  Here's a view of the top and the interior of the shirt, so you can see what I mean.

My interior view seems to be the opposite of what I see when I look online and see what a twin needle does, but it's doing the job and that's all I care about.  I suspect it has "tunneled" a little and someone will probably have a solution to suggest.

Also, I only used my serger for joining this entire shirt.  I figured out that if you read the manual that came with the machine, it actually tells you how to fix some of your problems!  All I needed to do was change the differential feed number and the waviness disappeared.  I love how the inside looks so neat and tidy!

Sadly, I have no picture of me conveying a weird message in this shirt, but I will in my next post, when I feature a long sleeve Lady Skater dress.

Linking here:
http://www.flamingotoes.com/2014/08/think-pink-sunday-180/
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2014/09/01/made-by-you-monday-219/
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com
http://www.sewcando.com
http://lifeasweknowitbypaula.blogspot.com/2014/08/no-rules-weekend-blog-party-with-linky_27.html

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/08/clever-chicks-blog-hop-102-with-henbag.html