May’s Hack of the Blank Canvas Tee- the 9 Lines Sweater and Tee- is complete! Sure, it’s June 10, but I’m getting better with the dates. I always seem to sew up the hack during the month and forget all the work that goes into writing it. I’ll try to be more punctual. This is the hemp-rayon jersey version.
I added three lines of pintucking to the back neck, I like the effect. It takes so little effort to embellish a plain layering tee, and I think it’s well worth it. This tee features a regular knit neck binding, underarm gussets for mobility (and to reduce bulk), and pintucked embellishments made with twin needles.
Though I intended the hack as a sweater, I made this one first to check if my gusset drafting would work on a knit. It does! I know gussets are kind of scary, but I over-explain them in the hack and I hope it’s useful to someone. I know that some hiking and activewear uses gussets, and they’re especially wonderful for sweater weight fabrics.
The Hemp Rayon was not terribly difficult to sew with, even on the fiddly places. I still don’t see any pilling, I’ll be sure to update at the end of the winter. So far, so good!
I re-watched Charade with Audrey Hepburn last week and this collar on “Reggie” caught my eye. It’s one of those curious little standaway collars so popular in the 60’s. I also have several standaway collars on my Hack Inspiration pinboard. I wanted to try my hand at a collar like this, combined with my other inspiration (though on closer inspection, it looks like this is a standaway collar, too):
I used a very plushy merino jersey and felted it gently in the washing machine. The result is like polar fleece, but sooooo soft and warm and magical. Really. I found the fabric as a second at The Fabric Store. I’m not sure why it was a second, I couldn’t find a flaw on the fabric. (In fact, before I cut the hack I wore the length of merino as a pashmina on a night out and was sorely tempted to leave it as a pashmina.)

You can see the seamlines. Buttons are glass and metal ones I re-discovered while digging through my stash. I love special surprises like that! I like the shape of the collar, but I could easily add a hook and eye to keep it closed tighter.

Close-up of embellishment. I made 3 lines of pintucking on each line I marked, very effective for this fabric.

back neck embellishment- I hadn’t washed out the chalk lines yet, in case they were needed to help show the embellishments in photos…

This picture shows range of motion. It’s important to me that my clothes allow me to pursue a double life as Spiderman.
When I was about halfway through writing this hack, I had an idea about how to best present the information. I’ve been struggling with this since I started publishing the hacks. I’d like them to be as visually pleasing and useful as possible, to present drafting as a delightful creative exercise rather than some secret and scary skill. I divided up the various design elements on this top and present them separately- both in the hacking and the sewing instructions. I’d be very interested to hear any thoughts on the hack.
More shots from the mobility testing. Clothes should be able to move, even the really lovely ones with glass buttons and pretty collars.
I’m really happy with this hack- both the garments I made and the pdf. Time to turn around and work on June, maybe I’ll get it out before July!
Up Next: Altering the Clovers and also Welt Pocket Testing. I’ve stumbled across several interesting welt pocket tutorials lately so I thought I’d try a few of them and pick a favorite.