Stripes Every Which Way!

Sure-Fit Designs Blog

What can you do with striped fabric?  Follow along as I show you a recent SFD Dress Kit T-Shirt design.  Here's the finished top.  But how did I get there?

I used my pre-drawn pattern for a Dress Kit T-Shirt.  You might remember an article on T-Shirt Tactics in the SFD Learning Center that shows you how to remove the dart from your Dress Kit Bodice Front to make a closer-fitting T-Shirt (than the SFD Shirt Kit would provide).

Previously, I'd used these directions to draw this Color-Blocked T-Shirt.  You might remember this design.

If you want the instructions for designing this color-blocked T-Shirt, they are only $1.99 and can be found on this page.
For this striped top, I used exactly the same pattern.  So that was just an easy tracing of what I already had.  Then I re-drew the midriff sections which looked like this.

I'd purchased this fabric during a sale and on top of that it was a remnant so I had limited yardage and had to be creative and conservative with the pattern layout.  Before I show you the result of stitching the segments together, the next illustration shows you the dimensions for each of the segments (keeping in mind my 5'4" body and the longer length that I wanted).

Once the actual fabric had been cut - (oh by the way - make sure when you cut your pattern apart on the relevant design lines that you MUST add seam allowances to each cut edge so that you don't loose any length) - I used the following angles for cutting the stripes.  The main top section, lower hip section and sleeves all had the stripes running horizontally.

Here's what it looked like when all the sections were sewn together:

It was OK, but just being gray with a black stripe, I thought it looked a little on the dull side.  What would it look like if it was solid black in segment #2?

So I ripped out the necessary seams, added the black, and the finished result looked like this:

I liked this a lot better knowing that I'd wear this top with either my gray paisley-patterned leggings or my black skinny leg pants.  I then used a narrow 2-thread cover stitch to decorate and hold the seam allowances in place.  You can barely see the cover stitching since the black thread blends in with the gray/black fabric.

Here's the finished top with the gray leggings and the second photo is with the black pants.

 

This fabric is another piece of the most comfortable cozy knit - it's a low loop terry that has a fiber content of 47.5% Soy, 47.5% Organic Cotton and 5% Spandex.  (This fabric came from Bolt Fabrics in NE Portland OR - a great little shop in a funky Portland community).  Yes it stretches in both directions and yes my pattern was sized down about 1 measurement dot all the way around.

One last comment...here's another option for you to lay out the stripes - the sleeves could either be vertical or horizontal.

 I know you'll enjoy this project...give it a try.

Happy Fitting & Sewing,
Glenda...the Good Stitch!