Father and son tunics from 2 metres of fabric

I won't lie. I feel pretty darn clever about this one.

I haven't made my husband any garb in yonks. He doesn't really seem to mind but it makes me feel bad that he misses out. So on our anniversary back in September we found ourselves in spotlight and we chose some really nice rust coloured linen. With his red hair it was going to look great. I got 2 metres and was planning on doing the fold-in-quarters-trace-a-t-shirt method of tunic making. The fabric was 60" wide so he was only ever going to get 3/4 length sleeves (which he didn't mind), but it also meant the bottom hem would be ridiculously huge if I used the full amount of fabric by turning the triangle around to make a gore.

So I started thinking, I wonder if I can make Jonathon (1 year old) a tunic out of this too? I grabbed a size 2 t-shirt (I want it to last!)  and tried to fit them both on the fabric without making Dan's tunic too short. In the end I fitted it in the gore section which meant the small tunic has additional front and back seams but there was absolutely ZERO fabric wasted!

T-shirt tunic making method. Fabric is folded in half one way, and then in half the other way so there are four layers of fabric. A t-shirt is folded in half and placed on the side with the single fold (the top will have two folds) and traced around

Pieces cut out

Flip the gore of the small tunic around. Zero wastage

I stood back and marveled at my own genius for a few minutes and joked to Dan that as Jonathon's tunics get bigger,  Dan's will need to get smaller!

Jonathon's got overlocked and sewn up straight away since I needed it wearable for a picnic the next day. It still needed to be hemmed and the neckline finished but he looked adorable.  And it should (read: BETTER!) last him at least a year.

Pieces overlocked

Gores pinned in place

Seams ironed flat

Keyhole neck marked. You can see the line at the bottom of the front piece marking where the heyhole neck ends. I cut the semicircle out and gently unpick the stitching back to this mark, then tie the threads off. If there was no front seam you would just cut a straight line down,

Neckhole cut and overlocked. Side seams sewn

"Finished" tunic. Still needs all the hems done and the underarm seams need to be clipped so they lie flat (you can see them bunching in this photo)

Yungsta wearing his new tunic to our medieval family picnic the next day.

So now for the daddy version.

Construction for this type of tunic is ridiculously simple. Literally sew up the sides, cut out the neckhole and finish the raw edges.

Dan chose this blue trim for his tunic so I had lots (not) of fun pinning that on the neckline. This is usually an odious task but it's so much worse with a really wide trim as you have to ease in the fullness around the the circular neck hole. I do it by making lots of little tucks all the way around and then have to sew them flat too. It takes much longer than it ought to in my opinion. Adding trim on nice straight seams though is nice and quick. And handy hint time - if you fold the seam allowance towards the outside of the garment rather than the inside and then pin and sew the trim over the top you enclose the raw edge. I find it feels much nicer against your skin too, particularly if you leave a gap of a few millimetres between the foldededge and the start of the trim as quite often trims can he quite hard and scratchy.

Pinning trim in place. Notice how the hem is folded towards the outside of the tunic and the raw edge is concealed underneath the trim once it is sewn down.

Pinning the trim around the neckline and adding tucks as I go. With a narrower trim it is sometimes possible to avoid tucks by using an iron to stretch one side of the trim out.

Neckline trim pinned in place. With a keyhole neckline you need to mitre the corners by folding the trim at a 45 degree angle

Pinning trim on the sleeves. Detail view of how hem allowance is concealed

Completed tunic with trim at neck, sleeves and hem

 Then I went back and hemmed Jonathon's tunic. I also added trim at the neckline of his too. I used the small piece of trim I had left over from my daughter's Tudor coat dress. There wasn't quite enough to do the entire neckline so there is a gap at the back. I don't really care. He will still look cute. And if/when I but some more of the trim to do the blue side of her coat dress I can use the extra to fill in the gap.

Grace modelling her brothers tunic. She is 3 and it still fits so he should get a fair bit of wear out of it.

Back view. You can see the edges of the trim finish just over the shoulders

So there you have it. Matching father and son tunics out of 2 metres of fabric with absolutely zero wastage!

Aren't they adorable?

p.s. The fabric was 60" wide. My husband is 191cm tall and a size M. The sleeves on his tunic are quite wide and could be narrowed to make the childs tunic longer if necessary. My son is a size 1 but his tunic is a 2-3. The 2 metre thing won't work for everyone...

Viking Rus Pants Finished!

I love it when I finish something. It makes me want to go and finish other somethings! And this week I finished two somethings - Dan's viking pants, and the inkle woven criss cross leg wrap thingy that I mentioned back here.

But before I get to that, when I left you here I had just finished inserting the crotch gusset using french seams and was sewing up the lower leg pieces. After that, I used the machine (on the widest stitch setting) to sew two straight rows of stitching 1/2 cm apart along the bottom of each upper leg section without reversing at each end. Then I held the bobbin threads (these were on the bottom when the fabric was on the machine) firmly in one hand, and used my other hand to squash the fabric up in the other direction. You have to do it a little bit at a time but you can gather up very large amounts of fabric into very gathered small lengths. Once it was gathered up to roughly the right size, I took the lower leg piece and slipped it over my gathered loop like so, with right sides together.

My god I can't draw

Here I adjusted the gathering threads for the last time to make sure the two pieces fit nicely together, then tied them together to secure. Pin the upper and lower leg sections together and sew. A free arm sewing machine makes this really easy, but it can be done on a regular machine too as long as you are always stitching the 'bottom' of the tube, with the 'top' above and to the left of the presser foot. You just have to keep adjusting your fabric.

This next step is totally optional, but it definitely makes the pants more comfortable around that gathered leg seam (and also stops fraying since I couldn't use a french seam here).

Top = Daniel's pants with biased seam.
Bottom = dads pants with raw edge

The bottom pants in this picture are my dads, and you can see how tight the gathers are. Its about 90 inches worth of fabric gathered up to 18 inches. When i put them on myself I was like "Ow! This is really scratchy". Dan's (top) were not so bad as he had less fullness and also a softer fabric, but still not super comfortable. So I bought some cream coloured bias binding and attached it over the raw edge. The first edge was pinned and sewn to the line of stitching that connects the two pieces of the leg (not the gathering threads). Then I stretched the lower leg fabric out and pinned the bias so that it made a slight bubble shape. Why do you ask? Because I have used this technique before and the bias has been pulled taught instead of the fabric and it looks good on the inside but doe this ugly wrinkle thing on the outside.

Using bias to enclose a seam. (why didn't I take a photo of this?!?!?!)

After that I hemmed the lower legs, and turned down the waistband and put a cheap cotton drawstring through (this will be replaced by an inkle woven one soon) and voila! Viking rus pants complete!

Pants complete!

And then I sat down for an hour after the kids were in bed and finished the other inkle woven leg wrap.

Pants with leg wraps

Close up of leg wraps

I do wish the leg wraps were longer. I think a third cross would look better, but they are the maximum length my inkle loom can handle. Just waiting on a friend to make me a bigger one :)

Hubby still thinks they are pretty spiffing. And he is rather excited to wear them this weekend. We are going up to an event in the Shire of Dismal Fogs (read - Lithgow, Blue Mountains) so I will make sure to take some more photos. Dad's pants should be finished by then too! I've also volunteered myself to teach a beginners tablet weaving class at the event so stay tuned for details on how that goes.

Viking Pants Progress Aids Kirtle Facing Procrastination

Sounds a bit like a costuming news headline.

So when I last posted, I had almost finished the neckline of my kirtle. Well that's done now and it looks pretty awesome. I plodded away and got the facing sewn onto the lining the same way as I described here. Then I was finally able to invisible stitch the lining to the wool at the neckline. I used the same technique I would use to do a blind hem, and it was only afterwards that I though about using a ladder stitch (which I have only ever used to sew up stuffed toys). I guess it doesn't really make much difference as long as you can't see it after all.

Invisible stitch 1 - Blind Hem

Invisible stitch 2 - Ladder Stitch

I did have progress photos to post, but alas my phone updated over the weekend and decided it wanted to delete thousands of photos (including many of my kids *super upset face*) so I can only show you what it looks like now. Excuse the flash which is making it look pink on my screen.

Kirtle bodice with finished neckline

Close up of invisible stitching. Can you see it?

So I had that done by Saturday night and I was so keen to stitch up the sides so I can start on the skirt when I came to the realisation that I was going to have to do the exact same facing treatment on both sides (including the armhole), before I could sew the eyelets.

Suffice to say I REALLY wasn't looking forward to doing all that work again. I know it's got to be done but... OOH SHINY! Look over there at that linen for Dan's viking rus pants! You know he really does need pants more than I need a dress.

So I got started sewing the rus pants. And I decided I wanted to make them with french seams. I'm really not sure why since it will take twice as long. I guess I just really don't want to do that facing. I think it is also partly because I have never really mastered french seams. It's all well and good when its just a straight side seam, but I tried it once on a chemise and when I got to the underarm gussets or the gores it just became a mess. I was hoping that hand sewing rather than machine sewing might help too.

How to sew a french seam

And it did. Again no progress shots (damn you camera!!!) but here are the upper pants now with all the internal seams complete and the waistband turned down and stitched

Upper section of viking rus pants which will be gathered up and poofy

Inside view of crotch gusset

Detail view of french seams on a corner

I am so happy I finally got my head around the french seams on inserted gores/gussets. It's all about where you stitch to before you move the folded bit. If anyone wants a step by step explanation with pictures (I am sure I'm not the only one who has struggled with this) I can sit down and do it. Just let me know

So now I am doing the french seams on the lower leg section. Then all I need to do is gather up the bottom of each upper leg bit and attach it to the lower leg, and hem. Voila! Instant pants!

I have decided I'm going to inkle weave a drawstring. I found that idea somewhere else (can't recall where) and I will use the colours from this post although probably a more manly pattern like stripes :D