I wasn’t as productive as I had hoped during summer KCW, but I did manage to finish a couple of outfits for each kid. Here are J’s:
Rocket ship tank with blue linen pants
Airplane tank with brown chambray pants
No new patterns or reviews here — when I sew for J, I pretty much stick to my TNT patterns anymore. He has fairly simple and predicable taste in clothes. Comfy t-shirts and tanks, loose, comfy pants or shorts … do you sense a theme?
I know I’m a couple of days late, but I hope everyone had a great weekend, and that all the Americans had a wonderful Fourth of July holiday!
We spent the holiday weekend visiting my parents in Iowa. J begs every year to go to Mimi and Papa’s house. We typically would go over Thanksgiving but last year (since we would have a 2-month-old at Thanksgiving), we decided to go over the Fourth of July instead. And oh my GOODNESS — can I take a moment to express just how much nicer it is to go to Iowa in July instead of late November?!?
It’s warm and sunny and beautiful in July where it is cold and damp and windy in November. It’s not uncommon to have snow on the ground for an Iowa Thanksgiving. After living in Missouri and Kansas for the last 10 years, that’s something this girl just isn’t used to anymore! In July, we could go to the park, play outside, drive without sliding on ice, etc. Needless to say, we decided to stick with that schedule this year. Maybe we’ll go up for Thankgiving as well, but don’t hold your breath on that one!
Every morning for over a week, J has asked me the same question, “Mommy, did you make me a new shirt?” And every morning my answer was, “No sweetie, not today.”
Well last night, I finally broke down and made the kid a shirt. When I showed him in the morning, he asked to put it on immediately, even before he got out of bed. And this coming from a kid who usually puts off getting dressed as long as he can — typically until about 10 minutes before he’s going to walk out the door for the day (which means I sometimes come home from work to find him still in his pajamas!).
J’s new blue tank top — he loved it!
J had requested a blue tank top, and selected gray for the trim when given a choice between gray and white. I used the Blank Tank pattern from the original Blank Slate Basics collection from Blank Slate Patterns (boy, that’s a lot of “blanks” in a single sentence!).
The crazy thing is, even though I was a tester for this pattern when it was released last summer, this is actually only the second Blank Tank I’ve made! You might think from that that I don’t like the pattern, which couldn’t be farther from the truth — I actually love it! It’s a quick sew (traced pattern pieces in a new size, cut fabric, and sewed the whole thing up with some added details not in the pattern in not quite 2 hours), and is super-comfy for an active little boy in the summer. And what kid doesn’t love a comfy, breathable knit tank top on a hot summer day?
The back view
The only thing I’m not particularly keen on in this pattern is the finish on the neck and arm openings. The pattern instructs you to simply turn the edges under 1/2″ and sew with a zigzag or double needle. While getting a top on and off, J always seems to pull at the neck and arm openings so much that the seams break when they’re finished in this way, which means I’d constantly be fixing it, or it wouldn’t get worn (again reinforcing my desire for a coverstitch machine so I have the ability to sew a stretchier seam!).
However, that was a really easy fix. Instead, I just used a gray contrast binding on the neck and arm openings that matched the gray pocket. Using a binding definitely takes longer since you’re adding a few more steps, but I also think it gives a more finished/polished look. I did use a zig zag stitch to attach the binding because I don’t trust my double needle to give enough stretch on knit items for J — he just pulls on them too much. I can’t tell you how many double-needle hems this kid has broken!
The details … and a big smile from a happy boy!
Not much more to say — J loves his new shirt! It’s always nice when the kids really love or appreciate the things I make for them. It doesn’t always happen at this age. I will make something that I think they’re going to love, and then they want nothing to do with it. Take N’s purple mouse Geranium dress — everything about that dress says “a two-old-girl will LOVE me!” Cute, swingy pattern, purple fabric, adorable animals all over it. And she’s only worn it once. She likes to look at it, but gives me an emphatic “no, no, no!” every time I try to put it on her.
Since there’s still a lot of summer left, I should probably make J a few more tanks. I have a great orange bamboo jersey knit sitting in my stash — I’m thinking an orange tank with a big tiger decal …
And since I’ve never done my full pattern review break-out on this pattern, here you go:
Blank Tank
Pattern: Blank Tank by Blank Slate Patterns ($7.95 USD).
Size: 4T, with no size modifications.
Fit: Perfect fit for my skinny 4-year-old. He likes his tops a little loose, and this one gives him room to move and grow. J is 40th percentile for weight, and 60th percentile for height, and is very compact, to give you a reference.
Fabric: Blue organic medium-weight jersey from Near Sea Naturals. The contrast is a lightweight gray heather jersey from Girl Charlee.
Modifications: I added a contrast binding to the neck and arm openings, as indicated above. When cutting the fabric, I left the arm openings as-is, but cut the neck opening about 1/4 inch deeper than drafted to account for the fact that I wouldn’t be turning the raw edges under. That also raised the neckline just a bit since the pattern has a 1/2″ seam allowance at the neck. The result is more like a muscle tee, which I like.
Physical pattern: This is a PDF, but it’s not too cumbersome to piece together. Just 3 pattern pieces.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall grade: B+. I love this for a basic summer tank. The only reason I mark it down is because of the simpleness of the pattern compared to the price.
the creative counselor 