Okay, MAJOR update upon this shirt.
First off, I got the pieces chalked up and cut out. The chalk turns out to work quite well; doesn't stain on the cloths and tends to disappear quite easily with a few rubs. Though it IS a bit difficult to use when it would move the fabric by dragging it a bit. Doing it in term I like to call "Chicken Scratch" seems to work best to lessen the drag.
Before sewing, I had trouble trying to line the chalk sides together. Spent a good 30min just struggling to get the pins in JUST right. I then had an idea; If I "Loose stitched" the chalked lines, I see it where it is on the other side!
This worked like a treat! I'm surprised this was told in some of the videos I watched.
The Shoulder was a TRIAL: Thick fabric. No light-table. Chalk was thin.
After the whole Saturday of getting this done, I called it a night. Then on Sunday, when I started the machine, some thread messed with the mechanics on the lower pad. Fixed it in an hour.
Then I began sewing the two-halves together. And I had to deal with some sizing errors between the two by shortening one side.
It was here that I realized that I made a mistake: I forgot to sew the neckline and doomed ANY CHANCE of sewing it after getting the shoulders finished the day before. I COULD have probably got away with it, but the space between needle and machine was so small, that it would bunch up and stretch when I needed to move it. So I decided to call it good and cut off the extra.
After that, the shirt was done. Some things I would like to improve and understand a bit more is the armholes. As you can see in the pics, there IS about an inch space in between. not sure how this happened or why, but its there. On the edges of the arms and bottom of the shirt, you can see that when I sewed them I accidently sewed one of them stitching-side up on the inside.
But I'm happy with this. It's the first shirt I have EVER created and, like I thought before, this material fit perfectly since bedsheets don't have the properties to stretch. Now I'm going to work on the chaps.
First off, I got the pieces chalked up and cut out. The chalk turns out to work quite well; doesn't stain on the cloths and tends to disappear quite easily with a few rubs. Though it IS a bit difficult to use when it would move the fabric by dragging it a bit. Doing it in term I like to call "Chicken Scratch" seems to work best to lessen the drag.
Before sewing, I had trouble trying to line the chalk sides together. Spent a good 30min just struggling to get the pins in JUST right. I then had an idea; If I "Loose stitched" the chalked lines, I see it where it is on the other side!
This worked like a treat! I'm surprised this was told in some of the videos I watched.
The Shoulder was a TRIAL: Thick fabric. No light-table. Chalk was thin.
After the whole Saturday of getting this done, I called it a night. Then on Sunday, when I started the machine, some thread messed with the mechanics on the lower pad. Fixed it in an hour.
Then I began sewing the two-halves together. And I had to deal with some sizing errors between the two by shortening one side.
It was here that I realized that I made a mistake: I forgot to sew the neckline and doomed ANY CHANCE of sewing it after getting the shoulders finished the day before. I COULD have probably got away with it, but the space between needle and machine was so small, that it would bunch up and stretch when I needed to move it. So I decided to call it good and cut off the extra.
After that, the shirt was done. Some things I would like to improve and understand a bit more is the armholes. As you can see in the pics, there IS about an inch space in between. not sure how this happened or why, but its there. On the edges of the arms and bottom of the shirt, you can see that when I sewed them I accidently sewed one of them stitching-side up on the inside.
But I'm happy with this. It's the first shirt I have EVER created and, like I thought before, this material fit perfectly since bedsheets don't have the properties to stretch. Now I'm going to work on the chaps.
