Adding Embroidery to a Basic Tee

My sewing machine has an embroidery unit, but I rarely use it.  I am not sure why I don’t, but I have a couple of theories.  The first one is I am always in a hurry to finish a sewing project once I start it.  I know it will take time to plan which design I want to use and to embroider a sample before placing it on a garment.  Those two things take time.  I think the second reason is I am afraid it will not turn out right.  I could place it on the wrong spot or the design might not stitch out without a flaw due to an operator error. 

In an attempt to make myself use the embroidery unit of my sewing machine more frequently, I joined the Embroidery Neighborhood Group of the Lansing Clippers American Sewing Guild.  I am so glad I did.  This group meets once a month at the Hen House Fabric Store in Charlotte.  The group is discussion only, which means I don’t need to lug my heavy machine to Charlotte to participate.   The discussions, led by Bev and Char, are super helpful.  We have a different topic each month and most months we bring samples of something we stitched.  We discuss our successes as well as our failures.  This is where all of us learn a lot and I get the courage to attempt to use my embroidery unit.

During our last meeting, we showed and discussed designs we stitched showing something from the sea.  That could be fish, whales, sea shells, coral, etc.  I planned to stitch a design showing sail boats in the distance with sea shells in the foreground.  It was a large design I wanted to place on the back of a sweatshirt jacket.  It had almost 35,000 stitches.  I was almost half done when I had to stop to change the bobbin thread.  This should not have been a problem, but it turned into one.  I hit the wrong button and caused the embroidery unit to go into the park position.  That also should not have been a problem; however, it was for me.  I was unable to get the needle back to point where it needed to be.  I won’t go into the details here, but I was unable to finish the design.  Now you might understand why I don’t embroider much.  I needed the design sewn out by my meeting the following day.  I decided to embroider a design with fewer stitches due to lack of time.  I chose a small sea horse and was able to get it stitched out before my meeting. 

Recently, I cut out a tee shirt from some inexpensive fabric I had.  I decided this would be the perfect time to try to add the sea horse to the top before sewing it together.   I also decided to place a design with sea gulls standing in water on the lower right side of the shirt.  I managed to get both designs embroidered on the shirt without a problem. 

I also recently made dark navy pants from Butterick B6910.  You might remember that is the pattern I used for the posts on how to fit pants.  I wasn’t sure I would like the pattern because it had a curved waistband.  I usually make pants with a straight waistband.  I will see how comfortable the pants are when I wear them.

The picture below shows both the tee shirt and navy pants.  I also took a closeup shot of the sea horse and sea gulls designs. 

 

Have you sewn your first project for 2024 yet?  If not, get started!  Is there a sewing technique or a process you want to try to improve or learn during this coming year?  If so, do your research and give it a try.

Good luck,

Judy

 

 Reflecting on 2023

It is almost the end of another year and time to look back to reflect on how it went.  It didn’t go as I planned, but it was a year filled with a few setbacks and lots of blessings.  I set my sewing goals in late December 2022 and early January 2023.  I even put them on paper, but I still was not able to complete them. 

I took my sewing machine with me when I went on vacation.  I was sure I would make some progress with those goals while I was visiting St. Simons Island; however, I was more interested in walking on the beach and sitting on the village pier than I was in sewing while I was there.  I did manage to make black capri pants, but that was all I sewed in a month. 

After returning to Michigan, I wasn’t up to par for several months.  At first, my illnesses were just inconvenient, but in June things turned more serious.  I came down with Covid-19, pneumonia and flu at the same time.  Shortly afterwards, my husband also caught Covid and pneumonia.  I went to the hospital for a few days, but after six or eight weeks, we were both feeling much better.  

In the midst of all this, we were the recipients of many blessings in different forms.  Our friends called frequently to see how we were doing.  Our daughter In Georgia contacted us daily.  Some of our neighbors delivered food to our door.  My yellow peony bloomed for the first time just as both of us were beginning to feel better.  I knew God was watching over us!

With almost no energy, I was only able to post only a few blogs in 2023.  However, in early fall, I was able to complete a few sewing projects.  One of the projects I really enjoyed was helping with the “Hacking Patterns” program for the Lansing Clippers Sewing Guild.  Being a part of that program, I had to take the time to hack some patterns in order to have examples for the program.  I saw a tee top advertised on Facebook that I liked.  It was the grey, black and white shown below. 

I made a copy of my favorite tee shirt pattern and then drew similar lines across the front of my pattern.  I wasn't sure how successful this would be, so I used fabrics I had in my stash.  I cut each pattern piece and made sure to add the seam allowances to all the pieces.  Below is a picture of the new shirt from this pattern hack.

I liked the Great Copy #2480 top and had the pattern, but I had never actually sewn the shirt and knew it would take some time to fit it to me.  I knew it was basically a tee top with modifications.  So, I made another copy of my favorite tee top pattern and started with that.  I drew lines across both the front and back of the pattern according to picture on the Great Copy pattern envelope.  This pattern hack took a little more thought because it changed the neckline of the top.  The top right front crossed over the left top front.  I added seam allowances to all new pieces and made sure the lower front and lower back pieces matched at the side seams.  I took more fabric from my stash to make this one, too.  The picture below shows the new shirt from this pattern hack.  

 

The third “hack” is sometimes called a “mash”.  That is term some people use to indicate that parts of two pattern have been “mashed” or merged together to get the look you want.  The top I wanted to replicate was view B of Kwik Sew pattern K3915.  It had a lower neckline than my favorite tee top pattern and it had a ruched neckband.   I just traced the neckline from the Kwik Sew pattern on my favorite tee top pattern and it was easy to make.  It saved me a lot of time because I didn’t need to fit the Kwik Sew pattern to me.  A picture of the Kwik Sew pattern along with my finished pattern “mash” is shown below.  I also included a close-up photo of the ruched neckline.

After reflecting back on my completed sewing projects from 2023, I decided I would not make any very specific resolutions for sewing in 2024.  Instead, I will only make three somewhat general resolutions for 2024:

1.  I want to complete more sewing projects in 2024.

      2.      I want to post more on my blog.

      3.      I want to start a new Neighborhood Group in the Lansing Clippers Sewing Guild to work with patterns

I hope you were more successful with your 2023 resolutions than I.    Whether you make any resolutions or not, I hope 2024 will be a very happy and prosperous year for you!  Check out the Lansing Clippers website later in 2024 to see if the new Neighborhood Group materializes.

Have fun with sewing!

Judy