Hey there! I usually blog at kittymakesit.com but I'm here today to show you what I made with the Solid Red Heavyweight Rayon Spandex fabric from Amelia Lane Designs.
My husband is so patient when I ask him to be my model so I can do pattern tests in his size. I know it’s probably even more awkward to have photos of yourself all over the internet when you’re not the one sharing them. He did draw the line and refuse underwear though.
He’s a really good sport about wearing things I do sew him too. Thinking I probably need to sew him more Desmond pajamas though. He’s been wearing this pair every week since Christmas and I am getting tired of Santa LOL.
He rarely asks me to make him anything, but a few weeks ago he told me that he wished he had more funny tee shirts where the design is high enough up on the chest that his webcam can catch it during the video tutorials he makes. He makes 3D assets for a video game and he posts tutorial videos for those trying it for the first time.
I started thinking about what to make him. We are coming into summertime here and we don’t have AC in the house, so something cool for sure. Amelia Lane Designs just stocked this heavy weight rayon spandex and I realized that’s exactly what I was looking for. He finds cotton lycra even to be too hot, but the thickness is better for how hard he is on his clothes. This heavy weight rayon spandex (around 220 GSM weight) is the perfect in-between. The thickness of cotton lycra but cool because it’s rayon. It also has really great drape, which is good because he doesn’t like anything clingy.
I used the men’s Rocky Tee by 5oo4. I like how quickly their patterns go together with the edge to line method for assembly, so I didn’t mind cutting a new pattern. I made sure to re-measure him because his measurements do change and then graded between three sizes. It was an easy grade, just basically sloping out from his chest measurement to his hip measurement. I could have removed some height since he is 5’6″ tall but I didn’t.
I wasn’t sure what kind of funny thing to put on the shirt and all of his ideas were a little too long or complicated to fit in the space high enough for his webcam. He was watching a programmer reviewer’s video yesterday morning while I was getting ready for work and he laughed so hard. It was something he tried explaining to me. Essentially all the video guys call each other sell-outs (shill) whenever they say something nice about a product, because they’re usually really critical. So this guy recommended cleaning your computer’s water cooling system with Crest and then made a joke about how all the comments are just going to be about him “shilling for Crest”. My husband laughed so hard (seriously, like so hard) and explained it to me… it was a REALLY deep inside joke, but, I was like, let’s make this work. What do you shill for? and he’s like oh I totally get called a Blender shill because I am always talking about how Blender (free software) can do such cool things that even 3DS Max (the paid software) can’t do… and it’s ironic because how can you shill something that’s free? Sounds good. Like a little easter egg hidden in his tutorial videos. Happy to oblige.
I made the iron on with my OLD Cricut Explore 2 (someday I’ll get a cricut maker and a easy press, for now, I have my old cricut and a cheap iron) and Siser Easyweed Vinyl. I just don’t have the patience for anything but Easyweed.
I was a little nervous about putting an iron-on onto rayon spandex because sometimes ironing can leave a sheen and I like to iron hot and press really hard to make sure the graphic lasts through lots of washing and drying. I didn’t have any issues. Not sure if this is just magic fabric because it’s so thick or because I used these teflon sheets. I put the teflon over the fabric and preheated it a little, then put the graphic on and put the teflon over the clear plastic. I ironed just enough to peel the plastic. Then I put the teflon over the vinyl and really pressed hard and hot to secure them. I’ve been reusing the same sheet for several months already.
Oh! I also noticed that all his store-bought shirts have flat locking around the arms and neck … I want to do it, but I’m scared it’ll look silly. So I did a practice run by using matching thread instead of contrasting thread and flat locking, just by having the material wrong side up on my coverstitch and top stitching the shoulders, armsye and doing the hems that way. I am not sure how I feel about it, but it’s not too shabby.
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