SEW U HOME STRETCH REVIEW

I try to accomplish one thing each day.  When I was an athlete and in training this was easy to do--one more mile, one more lap, one more whatever painful, body aching thing I could do.  Now that I am a sloth, I find it harder to to find things to get done that I can feel swell about in a 24 hour period.  I accomplish a lot of food related things like cooking the PERFECT hard-boiled egg (I shall teach you one day) but I haven't accomplished anything lately that I could get excited about (you can only get so excited about an egg ya know?) 

I have been taking sewing classes, two to be exact.  We are in the middle of making a tote-ish bag and the week before we made a coin purse with zipper.  After having some modicum of success I decided that even though I haven't finished my tote I would move on to wardrobe.  So on Sunday I decided to make a top. I had the Built by Wendy Sew U Home Stretch book which is a guide to sewing knits (lt-shirt type knits not chunky sweaters). Knits are supposed to be notoriously difficult but I had a goal in mind and Wendy on my side.  I bought my supplies. Knit jersey is relatively inexpensive (my navy striped number was $8/yard!) Wendy's book in hand and a whole lotta determination.

Wendy's description on how to transfer your useless and totally infuriating tissue pattern to thick banner cardstock is priceless. Her basic tee has multiple variations and since I wouldn't be caught dead in a ribbed crew neck I tried her Scoop neck variation. If you have body issues may I suggest never sewing?  If you are a 2-4 in 'real' life in sewing patterns you would be a 6-8, you can see where this gets tricky? I wasn't sure if I was really a medium or if I needed extra, extra large (I have a Dolly Parton-esque chest). Based on my measurements in Wendy's book I was a small. I wasn't convinced but I was trying to follow directions.

When it stated in the book to drop the neckline 5 inches from the basic tee pattern I thought it was bordering indecent but what do I know? She mentioned adding elastic to the neckline I thought that it was a design detail and left it out.  Afterward I realized it may have something to do with keeping you from flashing the public. Why on earth would I think I knew better than the person writing the book? I've never sewn a garment before in my life and I  questioned the master? Go figure. When she goes over the directions to sew the sides, for the life of me I couldn't find where I needed to stop for arm holes, so I threw  the shirt on and pinned it where I thought the seams should stop and armholes begin. Please don't do this unless you want to try to prick your eyeballs out taking the shirt off.

I was right about indecent for the neckline but I did leave out the elastic so I can't blame Wendy.  I found a tutorial for making ruffles here and saved the t-shirt from infamy. It only took me 16 hours to make and my mother proudly let me know, "not too bad,". I wore my shirt to work today and got a compliment at 8a.m. which made me as proud as a peacock.  I highly recommend Wendy's book, heck all her books are aces (if this dummy can follow them, you should be in GREAT shape). I am so all about the knits and want to make this into a cute dress next but I think I better finish my tote-ish bag first.  I can still collect tutorials if you have the hankering to link to any in the comments, just sayin'