13 October 2012

KCWC day two & three: Geo Tees

  In an act of random loveliness I received a copy of Figgy's Banyan pattern from flickr member and KCWC regular Fabricate. I love free stuff. Especially free patterns that I actually want to buy!  I decided to make a couple of summer tees for Archie and went to town on my pile of to-be-re-purposed clothing. Right now I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself that both of these t-shirts are made entirely from pre-loved clothing items. Sure, there's the eco factor, but really I get a kick out of seeing Archie walking around in stuff that frankly, in my opinion, looks pretty dang fabulous, rivals anything store bought; knowing it's made from old shirts. 
The Banyan T-shirt has lots of possibilities for personalizing. You can make it as subtle or loud as you like, whatever your boy style may be. The little pocket on the front is a nice feature and I also like that the neckline binding can be made out of the same fabric as the body of the tee, rather than ribbing. Here I've used a handed down spearmint t-shirt of daddy's and a re-tired el-cheapo dress of mine, that was $5 new and really too small but I bought it anyway for obvious geometric fantasticness.

For this one I wanted to make a plain tee with a party on the pocket. The geometric fabric is from a thrifted sweater, also seen here on these pants. And the grey is another daddy shirt. My favourite thing about using old tees to make a new tees is the time you save by not hemming by lining up the pattern pieces so they sit over the already hemmed parts of the tee. I did this with both the sleeves and the hem on both tees and so they took under an hour each. I have plans to a whole heap more, they're just so fun!

I thought I'd play around with a little feature at the bottom in an attempt at a high low hem. I think its pretty cute and any sort of top stitching really adds to a plain shirt like this. 


25 comments:

  1. Ohhhh I LOVE these! They are sooo gorgeous! And well done on the repurposing too! It seems all you touch turns to gold!

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  2. Smooth, as always:) We've been missing you in the pool:)

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  3. they look great! and you really do have the best eye for finding great fabric to repurpose!

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    1. oh, and thanks for the shout out too, I just knew you'd do awesome things with this pattern!

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  4. perfect Sophie! I'm a bit jealous these aren't on my boy right now.

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  5. Oh, I just love the black and white one. The matching back and pocket are fabulous and the re-purposed pattern just make it!

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  6. Oh wow - love these...especially the black and white one.

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  7. These are great. I have the Banyan pattern - you've just inspired me to use it!

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  8. Love love love them... espcially as they are recycled :)

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  9. These are so fun, I love the proportions between geometric patterns and solids, very skillfull!

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  10. These are great! I love your fabric choices and agree they are WAY cooler than any of the stuff in the stores.
    Im going to have to grab a copy of this pattern, I have two little boys and boys sewing patterns that are cool and practical are way to few and far between!

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  11. Oooh, Love the triangle shirt! So great!

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  12. there's a party in my pocket, oh yeah, oh yeah

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  13. beautiful and fashionable tees!! where you find this amazing jersey fabrics??

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  14. Awesome shirts!!! And yes, I totally agree...upcycling tees is awesome because those hems are already done for you!!! :)

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  15. awesome awesome. love your geometric thrifty finds but would probably need to print mine myself...i never see stuff like that!! love just the touch of it too, less '80s that way. same with neon - i used to wear it head to toe back in the day, but i love just a touch of it now.

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  16. I've been following your KCWC projects and I really like them!!
    The triangles t-shirt is amazing, I'd love to have one in adult size!
    Great job girl!!!!

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  17. Very cool. Love the way you mixed the a plain in with the print to make it go further. I have this pattern - I even started a practice one as I bought some amazing fabric but didn't want to use it for the first attempt. I made a bit of an error trying to serge the collar though, think I'll use the sewing machine next time.

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  18. How cute are these?! Love 'em!

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  19. I would make this for me!

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  20. Hi, I just fell over your blog - very enjoyable, but just had to comment as I also have a son named Archie - he is 21 and when he was a baby little old ladies used to abuse me for giving him such a terrible name. Very cool name now!

    I just looked at your review of V1247. I have been spending the Australia Day long weekend looking at it desperately wanting to make it. I've made the skirt a gazillion times but totally put off by the sizing issues for the top. Maybe I'll give it a go. Thanks for the thoughtful review.

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