And boy shorts for her

 The white pairs were made first, mainly as prototypes for a swim short pattern I am developing. They are made from a two-piece pattern with centre seams front and back. For the blue pair, I added a panel in the crotch (am I right in thinking it's not really a gusset?) to avoid a centre seam running through the crotch.

The blue pair were eked out of scraps left over from my husband's boxer shorts. I wouldn't normally have chosen such a wide elastic, but I wanted these pants to match the boxer shorts. So much fun to have matching undies!

I attached the elastic with a wide zig-zag with the idea of adjusting it after I wear them a bit to check how tight I prefer it. I may also upgrade to the better elastic if I see it holds up well in my husband's boxer shorts (I expect so) and I restock.

Catch-up post

I didn't sew much in 2015! I did only one real creative project, and it's not shown here because it has returned to "unfinished" status as I decided it needed some changes. For the sake of completeness, here is what I did make! Photos my be poor quality because they were not taken for sharing purposes and/or I dislike the garment...

Silver long pants: 100% nylon knit

Grey shorts: 92% cotton, 8% lycra

The pants and shorts above were made in April 2015. I must have decided I'd prefer the elastic waists to sit lower.

But seemingly got distracted while making the adjustment as the waist on the next pair (May) ended up way too low (particularly at the back). Did some piecing to get it a little higher. I don't actually mind the result. However, the fabric pilled immediately upon wearing. Unfortunately, I have some more of it in another colour as well.

Grey long pants: rayon/poly/lycra ponte

Ponte pants piecing

Lace cardigan

A lightweight cardigan designed for lace. It also needed to be simple because I had to do the whole project in a hurry.

I didn't draft a pattern for this. I drew a sketch with measurements based on other clothes, sewed up a toile, and refined the design from there. I took a leap of faith, because the toile, made in a polyester knit that was significantly less flowing than the lace, looked awful. It didn't drape nicely at all. I hoped that the shape would appear when the cardigan was made up in the lace. Happily, the lace version turned out in line with my expectations.

I considered underlining, but decided to keep just the lace. I'm happy with that decision.

To keep it very lightweight and because I was in a hurry, I didn't add any interfacing or facing at the front. I think this was a mistake as the center front seems to need reinforcing. I received suggestions to add a ribbon or lace trim and intend to try one of those.

I haven't sewn lace before. It sewed up quite easily, but was very fiddly to lay out and stripe match.

Tank top with gathered front panel

 
Tank top with princess seams, gathered center front panel.

Princess seams for design interest and shaping. I included a gathered front panel for design interest and to reduce the transparency of the quite sheer jersey. I don't think it turned all that well.

The fabric is a very lightweight rayon jersey.

Next time I will try it with a plain front and a firmer fabric.

Then neckline is not as drafted. I don't like the shape very much, but it was a successful save of the original neckline, which stretched and flopped. I tried a turned over edge for the first version and it seems to have been a poor choice. The finished version is a band.

I'm quite comfortable sewing jersey, but this very lightweight one was not very easy to sew. My sewing was less than accurate, but I found the top quite forgiving of my errors (trained eyes may beg to differ!).

In a future gathered version, I would like to modify so the drape starts from the shoulder seam and includes a bit of a cowl at the neckline. I wasn't willing to spend the time to develop that this time around.
 
I'm not excited about the top, but will probably end up wearing it until I fill out my wardrobe with tops I like better. It feels nice to wear and should work well enough as a casual top.

TNT, though not for me

 It's nice to have a TNT since all my creative projects take oh so long. I still have some fun with these with the coloured top-stitching. I'm down to two evenings for a pair of these (fast for me!).

The elastic is black and matches the shade of the fabric in real life. I used a wider elastic than on previous versions, but I'm still hunting for elastic as nice as that on the RTW boxer shorts these are based on.

Winter pajama pants and top

 Basic pants and an experimental top.

I love the pants. They fit well and are very comfortable as pajama pants.

The top was an experiment. The concept was a faux jacket over the top of the base layer, but actually sewn as a single top. The whole thing took ages to draft and sew (since I'm a newbie at all this), so I kept dumbing down the design to be done with it more quickly. In the end, I like the deconstructed look of the curling exposed seams, but am very bothered by the unstructured (floppy) area around the neck. Luckily, the seams are falling apart, so I will be rid of it rather soon!

The top was an experiment not just in terms of design, but also in terms of my approach to the learning, design, and sewing process. Turns out I really can't enjoy the results of taking shortcuts (as I expected), so I will try to take the time to learn the techniques needed to achieve the look I'm going for in the future.

Last one for a while

I added twin-needle top-stitching to the side seams and like the effect. I went for more subtle topstitching on the fly than on the previous pair to avoid the topstitching getting too busy.

Happily, these finished off the last of my grey cotton/lycra jersey, so no more grey boxer shorts for a while!

Turtle neck t-shirt

 

As well as making my first turtle-neck collar, I used this shirt to try to improve the line of my armscythe/sleeve seams. I made an initial adjustment to the pattern, with the plan to refine the seam after trying it on. I did end up with a line that is ok, but did not enjoy the process of making the adjustments. It was very difficult to sew the sleeves smoothly after all the fiddling, so I will not try that approach again.

I ended up with a little bubbling at the back under the collar. The back was smooth until I added the collar.

This shirt will be fine for around the house, which is what is was originally intended for. I want to make another version, which I hope will be good enough to wear out and about.

More boxer shorts

Boxer shorts with some topstitching for colour.

I think I might make something other than boxer shorts for my next project...

Long-sleeved T-shirt

I coined a new term in honour of this one--wearable fail. I intended to make a close-fitting top to wear under my jacket, but it ended up plain tight. I learned a valuable lesson in adjusting for the weight of the fabric. I did add more ease than for the pajama, but obviously not enough. I think the tightness is responsible for most of the ugliness of the neckline.

As I had expected the fit to be pretty good, I used white to more easily see flaws. In that respect, I was only too successful! From this and the pajama, I can see I need to adjust the shape of the armscythe at the front.

Another problem, and one I don't know how to solve, is a pulling to one side. I observed this in the pajama, but thought it was due to sloppy cutting or sewing as I didn't take a lot of care for that garment. I did take care to be accurate for this shirt as I wanted to use it for troubleshooting. I'm quite sure I cut it on the grain and symetrically and sewed it up accurately, so I'm not sure what is causing the twisting.

I won't mention the 101 other things that are wrong with this simple T-shirt...

On the plus-side, it is comfortable to wear and I love the super long sleeves!

Pajama-my first garment!

So excited to make my first garment, flaws and all! I used an unfavoured rayon print that wasn't what I expected (just in case it was a disaster), but I really like the result. It's very cosy and comfortable. The sleeves are actually the same length, one seems to have been folded up when I took the pics.

Sports bra

Fits quite well. Will raise armhole and make smaller for next version. Elastic not very comfortable at the end of the day.

Boxer shorts

Boxer shorts based on hubby's favourite RTW ones, omitting front opening and placket. I later shortened the elastic. I also plan to use woolly nylon in bobbin rather than regular polyester thread for future versions. Very comfy, by all reports!