A sporty Concord tee

Just a quick post to show another Cashmerette Concord T-shirt. I needed a new shirt for the gym and since my wearable Concord muslin gets a lot of wear I thought I'd give the longer version a try.  

Concord tech drawing

Scooped neckline, mid length sleeves with tabs, curved hemline. In addition to the shoulder adjustment I made for the muslin I took out an extra 3/8" halfway between center back and shoulder on each side of the back neckline to fix a bit of gaping. The neckband was cut on the cross grain.

The fabric is a cotton jersey, bought last autumn with a Plantain in mind. 

The sleeves were a bit short on me, next time I'll lengthen them so that I can make decent hems that don't roll every time I bend my arms. I just forgot to add the usual inch for my long arms.

Eventually I didn't use the tabs. There's enough going on with this print, and I liked the look of the sleeves as they are.

The curved hem is finished with facings. The pattern instructions tell you to finish the hem and topstitch the facings before closing the side seams, I prefer to do it the other way around. Close the side seams, stitch the facings together at the side seams and attach them in the round, then make a continuous row of topstitching.

There's something about this shirt  that doesn't feel completely right and I can't quite put my finger on it.

Should I take it in at waist and hips?

Or perhaps shorten it?

Or just leave it as it is and wear it for my weekly workout?

I'd really like to hear your opinions!

Review Knipmode June 2016

Is it me, or are pattern magazine release dates moved forwards? On May 7th the June issue of Knipmode entered my mailbox. Not complaining! It's all about summer dresses and it's making it hard to stick to my plans to make more separates. 

Pattern overview Knipmode 6/2016

Bright colours, lovely necklines, nice seaming details. Yellow dress #8 has interesting neckline features at the back and green dress #7 may look simple at first sight but it has good fitting options.

Asymmetric dress #11 is pattern of the week, which means there's a discount offer for the pdf . I like the style, but I'm not sure how the asymmetric princess seams will work. Will they twist? It will be interesting to see this dress made up!

Knit dresses #1 to 5 are variations on the same pattern. Lots of mix&match options, and all views come in one pdf. I really like the maxi dress for warm summer days in the garden.

You can't go wrong with a lace dress for summer, or a top with lace inserts.

Maxi dress #13 has an open back with twisted ties, lovely if you can afford to go braless!

Just like in last month's special the patterns in this picture are shown in both size 36 and size 46.

So far so good. But.....alarm bells going off!

Look at the upper right corner of the front page! The June issue says 'Patterns in sizes 34 to 54' while previous front pages mentioned 'All patterns in sizes 34 to 54'. 

A small but significant difference.

It came as an unpleasant surprise for a lot of Knipmode readers when the pretty lingerie collection, used as a teaser in the preview, was only available in a very limited size range.

None of these patterns are available in size 34 or above 46, in fact only those readers with either size 40 or 42 can make both slips as well as the slip dress without having to grade up or down. (Not discussing the bras, as cup sizes vary so much). I sincerely hope this is not a forebode of changing policies regarding sizing!

Disclaimer: this review contains no affiliate links. I paid for my copy and all opinions are my own.

Thanks!

Thank you all so much for your kind and supportive comments on my previous post. You guessed right, family and friends are very proud of the founder of Enschede Textielstad. It takes a lot of courage and determination to start a weaving mill from scratch. She's working crazy hours, but in between making tough business decisions and preparing the looms for production she did read your reactions and the cheering is highly appreciated!

If you want to follow the search for spare parts, the cleaning of the hardware and other adventures you can now follow @Enschedetextielstad on Instagram (in English).

Over here normal service will be resumed. April was unusually cold, with unseasonal snow and hail storms. Not very inspiring to sew spring garments but things are much better now.

And there's more good news: ten weeks after his accident Mr Foxgloves is as good as new again!


Time to make some spring sewing plans! On top of the list is Concord tee #2.

More on that soon!