Grainline Hemlock and a sunny spring day!

  Yesterday was such a beautiful sunny day here on the south coast - it was so wonderful to finally feel the sun warming my face as I walked to the woods with the little people to spot 'sign's of spring' (another homework assignment) and build dens (one of our favorite activities!).

  I was wearing my new grainline hemlock t-shirt, which was perfect for this wonderful spring day. I had been wanting to make one for ages but it was seeing these fabulous versions by just sew therapeutic and what Katie sews that really prompted me to make mine.

  Here is what it is supposed to look like:

 I had a lovely drapey mustard viscose jersey with cut out shapes (I'm not really sure how else to describe it - basically there are small shapes within the fabric which are sheer) it is very thin and probably the most challenging fabric I have used to date as it shifted around quite a bit. Ages ago I read a suggestion about cutting out Jersey fabric by laying it out on a carpet - I knew this particular jersey would be difficult so I thought I would give this suggestion a go - from now on I will cut out all of my jersey fabric like this! The bottom layer of fabric sticks to the carpet so it is much easier to get it wrinkle free. I was feeling stingy and had a small section of fabric which would have otherwise been wasted so the neckband was cut on the wonkygrain rather than crossgrain - this was a mistake as I like the wide drapey neckline of the Grainline photo (above), and of course my neckband isn't so stretchy. There are no instructions with this pattern but Jen from Grainline has a great tutorial on her website. I sewed the whole thing on my serger (first garment made totally on my serger!) even the sleeves and neckband (which I don't mind admitting I did get a bit stressed about!!). 

I also ordered a stretch twin needle to try out - I played around with both the thread tension and the bobbin tension and still couldn't manage to eliminate the tunnelling between the two row's of stitching. Plus I didn't overlap the stitching enough or reverse stitch enough (my machiene really didn't like doing this with the twin needle) which meant that all of my twin needle hems started unravelling as soon as put the t-shirt on!! I ended up re-doing some of it so if you were to look closely at the sleeve and main hems there are some slightly messy bits! If anyone has any good twin needle tips or knows and good resources please let me know!!!!

    I pried my camera away from the middle little person who's homework we were doing for long enough that my oldest little person could take a couple of shots of me frolicking around the woods in the springtime sunshine!!

 Despite the neckline not being as wide as I had imagined I still love this t-shirt, it is very light and perfect for layering over a vest-top (perhaps I should be grown up and say camisole?), it also looks good with a darker camisole/vest-top under it that show's up through the sheer shapes.

  I do love a good woodland den building session!

  Whoever made this one obviously has some good den building skill's! Our's wasn't quite so sturdy!!

  This will be my last selfish sew for a bit - I have not one but three baby blankets to crochet, one pair of oven mits to make, as well as agreeing to sew my daughter a dress and some pj's in time for her birthday in a couple of weeks!! Eek! - I'm going to be a busy lady!!

    Thanks for reading!!

                       Su xx