Well day one and I have finished a t-shirt, (took a lot longer than an hour) and it does fit more or less (sleeves and hem length will be altered tomorrow) which is amazing considering the complete hash I made of overlocking it. I've re-purposed a couple of t-shirts that were heading for the bin. I stitched the car graphic onto the front before making up the t-shirt. It could have done with being further up but he-ho. I tried a new way of applique which I'll use again. I used temporary spary adhesive to stick the graphic to the shirt and used a bit of tearaway stabiliser on the back before stitching it. I don't like using bond-a-web to attach applique on knit fabric as it always leaves the fabric a bit stiff where the applique is.
This is the first t-shirt I've made and I certainly can't fault the pattern I'm using which is the amazingly detailed All the Rage Raglan from The Scientific Seamstress. The pattern has great instructions including those for a standard sewing machine not jut an overlocker/serger. One of the options in the pattern is to stitch the hems before sewing up the side seams. This means you have a nice straight hem but when I went to overlock the side seams the machine ate the fabric. It's something to do with the thickness of the layers of fabric at the hem I'm sure. I couldn't keep the seam straight and the fabric got all bunched up and dragged into a big mess which resulted in a broken needle and a lot of bad language. After all that I just used my standard machine with woolly nylon in the bobbin, straight stitched and zigzagged the edges and hey-presto a finished t-shirt.
So where does that leave me with overlocker? At the moment I could quite happily throw it out the window, if it wasn't so heavy. It scares me and it's very loud and seems to go at 3 speeds, fast, faster and lightning fast.
It's just teething problems........ isn't it?
7 comments:
Hey it looks great, I'd love that shirt for my son! My machine used to scare me too. I've had it about 5 years and finally able to use it confidently this year, it takes some practice, keep at it! :)
yes. teething problems. I'd say that some broken needles are required in the 'getting to know each other' process. I've broken many. Like the re-purposed t-shirt.
Love the car graphic! Where's it from? Great job on your first overlocker project...it will get better, but these machines also have a love/hate relationship LOL.
Glad to know this is quite normal :) hopefully with a bit more practise things will improve. Kim the car graphic is cool isn't it I re-purposed it from an old t-shirt of my husbands.
This came out great. And I love the scientific seamstress patterns. I use one of her pants patterns ALL THE TIME.
It looks so cute! Hang in there with the overlock machine!
Looks great and so glad to hear you are getting some "me" time. Keep at the overlocker, it will surrender eventually I'm sure!
Post a Comment