Thanks to all who entered the giveaway for my new pattern, Basic Tees…and thanks to those of you who didn’t enter but had a read and a look! I know I hardly ever manage to enter any giveaways, no matter how cool the prize is! Blog reading is hard work 🙂
Congratulations Miss Rosie – you have won a copy of the new pattern. I’ve sent you an email.
If you are looking for a place to purchase a copy of Basic Tees, I know they are in stock now at the following two stores:
Welcome to round two of my Basic Tees show and tell! Hope you’re not sick of them yet because I’ve got ideas for plenty more swimming around in my head!
Lil has reached a stage where she can’t smile naturally for the camera and does all of these weird sort of smiles! It’s cute and cracks me up! This tee is a View B – I’ve used contrast fabric for the sleeves and neck binding again though.
FABRIC = Stella knit in Blood Red, Spot knit unknown
I love these Hilco Campan stripes. They add a lovely punch of colour and interest to a plain tee.
This tee was supposed to be a short-sleeved version of View A, but I forgot to cut short sleeves! It is still cold here and Tommy needs more warm tees so I don’t mind 🙂
The applique on this one is out of knit fabric using a triple stitch around the edge again. This time I got a silhouette of a stegosaurus to make the applique, but it looks a bit like a hedgehog or a shrub now that it is finished – oops! One of the few words Tommy can say is “dinosaur” so I thought it fitting that he got a dinosaur shirt.
Oscar’s second tee is a View C – boy’s long-sleeve with short-sleeve overlay and contrast neckline and double hem.
This was a bit of a mix-and-match tee – I didn’t have enough of the stripe left to use for the contrast hem so added a bit of grey instead and tied it together with a baseball cap applique. Same deal as usual – found the silhouette online and used triple stitch in green to sew it on and add lines for detail. (Please try to ignore the blue fabric marking pen that hasn’t been washed off yet!!!)
Hopefully these blog posts have given you some inspiration for sewing Basic Tees – there is SO much you can do with this pattern, from keeping them plain to going crazy with colour and embellishments…I warn you that once you start you’ll be hooked!!
For anyone wanting to order a copy of Basic Tees now – you can do so at one of the following stores:
And don’t forget to leave the comment “make it perfect” with any knit purchase from Crafty Mamas for the month of August and you’ll receive a free gift!
So excited to hear all of your lovelyfeedback about my new pattern, Basic Tees. I have to say, I am hooked on this pattern at the moment. It is great to have a pattern that I can quickly sew over and over again and know that my kids will wear it every day. I did mention in my previous post that I have sewn 10 tees in 1 week! It was fun to choose fabric combos and come up with different embellishments for the kids – I tried to pick things that they were interested in and they love them!
Time for a bit of a show and tell – I have listed all of the fabrics used below the photo sets in case you are wanting to find similar fabrics. I’ll share some with you today and then a few more tomorrow…
First up, here’s Oscar (looking very serious!) in his plain, long-sleeved tee (View A). I wasn’t sure if I was going to embellish all of the tees I’d made and thought I’d sew them all up and then see if they needed anything more – and this one did.
I haven’t really sewn anything for Oscar in quite awhile (besides his High Flyers pants) and I didn’t realise that all of a sudden it has become a little trickier to come with applique designs that suit older boys. The boy style embellishments that I would usually turn to all seemed a bit “cute” for him, so I spent a bit of time online looking for inspiration and found this great paper aeroplane image to use as a freezer paper stencil – perfect for our boy who is going through reams of paper a week making aeroplanes. His favourite thing to Google and watch YouTube videos about at the moment is “how to make the world’s best paper aeroplane”!!!!
The thin white border around the outside of the stencil was a happy accident…I painted the plane white to start with, but it didn’t come out as bright as I hoped, so painted black over the top and ended up with some of the white on the edges of the black. It looks kinda cool.
And here’s Lilsy. Her tee is View D – a girl’s long-sleeved tee with contrast short-sleeve overlay and contrast neckline and double hem.
Once I’d sewn this tee, it was a little bright for me and I was worried that the colours I picked were too “out there” together. The applique has really helped to bring it all together though, and she loves it which is the main thing! It is a little big for her at the moment – I sewed a size 4 and she turned 4 last week.
Tommy’s tee is another View A – but this time I used a contrast colour for the neckline and sleeves.
I liked the look of this one without any embellishments and love the fact that it is easy to find boy-friendly knit fabrics. Tommy’s tee is a bit big too – he is 2 and I sewed a size 2 but he is still pretty mini so he will be getting lots of wear out of his!
And lastly for today is Lil – this is View B…girl’s plain tee with short-sleeves. I ended up gathering the hemline of the sleeve a little and sewing some binding in the same way as for the neck to hem the sleeves. Love the way this one has turned out and will be making many more for summer.
The applique is a bird silhouette I found online and I used the same knit fabric that I used for the neck and sleeve binding. Instead of using a zig-zag stitch around the edge of all of my appliques, I have used a triple stitch on my sewing machine. After having a bit of a play with it, I much prefer the way that it looks. If you are using triple stitch with wovens though (like I did in the “LOVE” tee above) then you’ll need to keep in mind that the edges will fray after a few washes. Knits don’t fray though so nothing to worry about with this bird applique!
And I thought you might be interested in checking out the dressing studio we used for the shoot…these kids get all the luxuries of paid models – quick changes with Dad in the middle of the alleyway!! They were very good little models yesterday actually – and they may or may not have been bribed with lolly pops 😉
For the month of August, Crafty Mamas is offering a free gift with any knit purchase if you leave the comment “make it perfect” with your order – I wonder what goodies will be turning up in your letter box?!
See you tomorrow with some more Basic Tee creations!
Hi all! Things have been a little quite around here lately…and my house has been messy…that only means one thing – I’ve been busy working on my latest pattern and am all ready to share it with you today!
An indispensable starting point for everyday dressing, Basic Tees is a pattern you will find yourself using again and again.
The classic long or short-sleeved tshirt is a wardrobe staple that you can’t do without. The easy style of Basic Tees allows you to express your creativity and create one-of-a-kind tshirts that suit every occasion.
Featuring a straight style for boys and more fitted body with gathered sleeves for girls, as well as options to include short-sleeve overlays and contrast hems, Basic Tees is the ideal foundation for thousands of outfits!
Basic Tees is another Make It Perfect pattern designed for use with knit/stretch fabric. If you are a newbie to sewing with knits, I highly recommend a simple tshirt pattern as your starting point. They are quick and easy to make and something that your kids are bound to get a lot of wear out of.
The pattern comes with lots of tips and tricks for sewing with knits, but my number one tip is to use the best quality fabric that you can afford. All of my failed attempts at sewing with knits have happened when I have been using cheaper quality knits. Good quality is much easier to sew, washes and wears better and gives a much nicer finished result. These tops were sewn using gorgeous knits from Crafty Mamas – the solids are all Stella and the stripes are Hilco Campans. Crafty Mamas now offers free postage within Australia and great International postage rates – gotta love that!
There is heaps you can do with the Basic Tees pattern…instructions are given to create a plain tee or tee with short-sleeve overlay and contrasting hem and neckline as shown above but, of course, these are just starting point suggestions – you can mix and match fabrics and decorate with applique, freezer paper stencil, buttons, ribbons, iron on transfers, etc. and easily come up with a whole cupboard full of tees to suit your style!
Once you sew one, you’ll be itching to make more (trust me, I’m up to my 10th tee this week!) my kids wear long and short sleeved tees every single day so I know I’ll be sewing lots more in the future!
Big thanks to my beautiful photographer, Chelsea (check out her work – she is amazing!) and the GORGEOUS models she rounded up for me. They are the cutest kids ever – chooks, books, rain, cute kids…what more could I ask for?
Take a look at my new website for more information on Basic Tees. As always, copies of the pattern will be avaliable soon in retail stores – or you can always ask your favourite store to order a copy in for you.
GIVEAWAY
I’d love to give one lucky winner a copy of Basic Tees – leave a comment on this post to be in the draw! (Please make sure you leave an email address with your comment. Giveaway will close Wednesday 17th August and winner will be drawn at random).
