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I modify! Polo shirt edition

So, as you know, I recently accepted a position with THEM.  THEM is a very different place than Company.  For one thing, they sent me a gift basket before I even started.  That was terribly nice of them.  They also give all their new hires a whole set of THEM-wear because…I suppose they want ALL YOUR ALLEGIANCE.

But anyway, before I started, I was asked my clothing size and whatnot so they wouldn’t know what size shirts to order for me.  To be safe, I told them XL since they didn’t give me any measurements that went along with these sizes and I figured I could always alter down.  It’s kind of hard to alter up.  You can…it’s just harder.  Well anyway, when I received my THEM-wear (three polos, two button-downs, and a jacket), they fitted me about as well as a two-person tent would.  That is to say…they were quite large on me.  Quite.

Not my favorite color, so obviously it’s the one to experiment on. Note the tent-like qualities.

Now, the jacket wasn’t a huge deal.  I actually really like to wear tent-like jackets.  Also, the particular jacket included in my THEM-wear is really hard to alter.  The polos and button-downs were another matter though.

For one thing, wearing a tent doesn’t look very professional and generally, I try and look like I belong in a professional environment in front of customers.  It’s remarkably difficult for a moose to blend into a professional environment.  You wouldn’t think so, but it is.  I would argue I could get away with it wearing a tentish jacket as it’s supposed to go over all my other clothing and stuff, but not with a shirt that would be the primary layer.

Another problem with wearing a tent is that in my line of work, sometimes I have to bend and contort into strange positions to get under machines and such.  If you’re wearing something that’s either too big or too small…well, it is a Bad Thing that can quickly escalate into a BAD THING.  It’s best for clothes to be fitted whilst still allowing room for movement.  That…doesn’t really describe a tent.  So, I had to alter the shirts.

Altering down the polos on each side wasn’t a big deal.  I ended up just taking in one side first until it fit how I wanted and then mirroring the new edge to the other side.  If you have a ginormous polo that you want to completely alter, then I would refer you to this series of photos.

The thing with polos is that they often have that split hem.  This was the case with my THEM-wear polos.  I didn’t want to get rid of the split hem because I thought it looked funny without it.  I was hoping I could get away with keeping the original split hem, which meant having a shirt that was extra wide at the bottom.  Yeah…that didn’t work out so well.  So, I had to recreate the split hem.  It’s really not a difficult process.  I’m just lazy.

Split hem

So here’s how I did it.  Sorry, it seems like I wasn’t interested in documenting the process when I was doing it.  I only have a very few photos.  I scribbled on one to try and help illustrate what I was doing.

  1. Alter the sides of your polo to your satisfaction.  If you’re not ripping apart the seams and completely redoing everything, I would recommend sewing the new sides down first before cutting or ripping seams or anything.  That way if you mess up, you can just take it apart and start over.
  2. Decide how long you want the split to be on your split seams and them make sure to sew at least 0.25″ past that point. (The greenish circle.)
  3. Rip apart the seams for the original split seam.  It’ll take some effort and care.  There are a lot of reinforcement stitches.
  4. Trim the raw edge of the split seam so that you have at least 1″ to the new sewn edge.
  5. Fold a small triangle from the raw edge.
  6. Holding the previous fold down, fold the raw edge to meet where the sewn edge of the shirt would be.
  7. Fold the whole thing one on itself so that the edge is approximately 0.25″ from where the sewn edge of the shirt would be.
  8. Sew the free edge down.  I recommend using your zipper foot.
  9. Repeat steps 1-8 for the other half of the split hem.
  10. Sew in the reinforcement stitches like you had earlier if you so desire.
  11. Repeat steps 1-10 for the other side.

Hmm…looking back, I see that this is a horrible tutorial.  But I do have one more polo I have to alter.  I guess I’ll take some pictures while I’m altering that one and update this post.  But you have some idea of how to make a split hem.  Right?  Riiiiight???

I make! Lemur laundry bag edition

I bring your attention to this.

I trust that you remember it?  The giant circle eventually because a part of this.

Lemur!  I stuffed a comforter, a smaller blanket, and like five pillows in there and there was still some room at the top.

Yes, when I said it was that time of year again, I meant it was that time of year in which I make a lot of oversized laundry bags (two links…it also occurs to me that I’m missing a year’s worth of laundry bags) for the graduating high school seniors.  Remember, gifts should be useful…and embarrassing.

This year, I only had to make one and I decided to make a lemur.  Obviously.  It took a long time to figure out which animal to base this laundry bag on this time and then even longer to figure out how it should be posed.  I really wanted to do a sleeping lemur, but I couldn’t quite figure out how to make a 3D version of what I wanted and also, it kind of negated the reason as to why I chose the lemur (the big eyes).  So, I settled on a sitting lemur with its hands resting at its side.

Here are some detail shots.

I tried something new this time and appliquéd the face.  Except for the pupils.  That’s fabric dye.  Appliqué means that it was easier to make all the details of the face, but it is really stiff right there.  The rest of the pieces were done as I had before, which is how Tally made her patch here, only on a much larger scale.  All previous bags had all the details made that way and sometimes it’s kind of hard to control how exactly it turns out when you turn it inside out.

I really like how the hands and feet turned out.  It was actually the same pattern for both.  Lemurs have hands and feet that look quite similar.  I sewed the general outline of the hands/feet and made the individual digits by using black thread with a gray bobbin.  Really like how it turned out.  In case you didn’t catch it the first time.

I based the laundry bag on a ring tailed lemur, so of course it needed a nice, fuzzy, ringed tail.  I made the tail out of fleece so that it was fuzzy.

I believe I have perfected my bias tape technique.  Even the round on the bottom of the bag was wrinkle free.  Except I didn’t get a picture of it.  You’ll just have to trust me.

And finally the grommets.  I had originally planned on using silver grommets, except then I realized I only had two left.  I did have a new box of gold colored grommets, so I started using those.  Only to have each and every one I tried putting fail at the last instant.  They would all warp in weird ways right at the end and not actually grip the cloth.  I thought it was the anvil and setting tool I was using, as I had two sets, but both sets were producing the same results.  I ended up having to buy another set with another setting tool and anvil.  These ones worked just fine.  I have no idea what was going on with the other grommets I had.

Anyway, tada!  Lemur laundry bag!