T-Shirt with 2 inch neckband and a a new fail in sewing for my husbund - lekala S6001

I am constantly feel a bit guilty for letting my husband out of my sewing projects. I had quite a few successful projects for my and the kinds but years pass by and still nothing significant for him... I keep trying to find something but it's not an easy quest. My last attempt was the free pattern from Lekala S6001:

   I was hopeful about custom sizing but should have been also more cautious about it being a free pattern. I think I started to feel the failure right at the print : 34 pages !!! for a tee. But I went along with it.  The good part was that it was easy to sew and the V of the neck turned out OK even if it is to wide for a tee. 
   I almost felt hopeful until it was tried on. It was to large. The shoulders was way way off. I think I could have done a better job myself drafting the pattern... Quite disappointing again... So more postponing for a successful men project.

The gray elephants in my life - Ottobre 3/2015

Like I said before I was exited to try the 2 men pattern from this summer issue of Ottobre Design Magazine.I already tested the tees - here - and they were great so I sewed 2 more in organic cotton knit from etsy for the front panel and french terry from Cameleon Textil in the back.

As you can see from their sketch the front is lower then the back. But what you cannot see is that the front is really lower then the back. Once i was ready to attach the waistband and looked at the pants I was like WTF. I admit I know  nothing about men pants but the front piece is 2/3 of the back one length at the crotch. I thought it was an error on my side cutting or tracing the pattern but no. Is this really normal?

  I had no idea what sizes to use so I went to using the tables and did the same as for the tees 52 for my father and 56 for my husband. I ended up with really really large pants. I manage to salvage a bit on my father and he can wear them with a belt. But they still are to large. For my husband I just added elastic waistband from the beginning and they are can be used as sweat pants since the woven fabric is lightweight and stretchy but the back looks all wrong.

 But both my father and husband been very supportive and said they can still use them even if they have been quite a failure in my opinion. At least now they can match with Andrei since the pants are from the same fabric as his knickerbocker bermudas. And of course I needed to do a new tee with elephants for him as well. Unfortunately I didn't have enought from the same fabric for him but I found similar ones and used another Ottobre 3/2015 design - the #20 Hello Shark sleeveless hoodie. Now this a a totally different story. I was unsure in the beginning but working with Ottobre and having so many items to love  I got courage to try new things.

The moment I seen my son dressed all the doubts vanished. This is a cute and fun tee. I did it a just a bit larger to have it next year as well maybe...

All 3 T-shirts were a great success. Good fabric, good design and good fit. And even with the failed pants everyone seems to be able to enjoy playing in this new outfits:

Take a shot at men patterns - 1st easy T-shirts

I am promising my husband some day I will sew for him as well. The day I will be better at it and of course for years that day never come.  After doing some wardrobes for me and the kids it would have seemed like it was his turn now. I also done some PJ for my father last summer and even if is a self drafted pattern and is so wrong in so many ways he wears that a lot so I promised I will sew something decent for him as well. Then I seen Sue Parrott's blog post making tees for all the man in her life and I loved the idea. When I just received the Ottobre design magazine for kids last week number 3/2015 and it had 2 men patterns as well all the pieces of this puzzle seemed to click together. I decided to try this 2 Ottobre patterns for my husband and my father.


   It is an interesting design with normal sleeve in the front and raglan in the back and I think it has potential for creating some interesting color blocks and unique tees.

Even if I have gathered so many fabrics I don't have many that can go for men. I found this large uneven stripes one  and decided to use it for my testing. I would say that the 1st version of this tees is not that bad and I can't wait to find some good fabrics to make them some better ones as well. I had to improvise a little bit with the cutting on my father tee since there was not enough fabric to cut both tee on the grain line.

 They both wore it yesterday without me asking them to do it and my husband even took it to work so he must have like it.