More Hacks for the Ruched-T

In my quest to buy few patterns this year, I have been working on my pattern-hacking skills. Most recently, I remade one of my favorite T-shirt patterns which is by Angela Wolf called the ruched tee. I blogged about it before in these posts here and here. After having done the RTW fast for 3 years total, I am far more inclined to make what I want than buy. But this time, I wanted to change up the sleeve a bit.

I wanted to give the sleeve a flutter look by fanning it out (I’ll show you the pattern piece in a bit). The yellow was my first attempt at doing this.

While I was happy with this one, I wanted more. So I reshaped the pattern piece again and this was the result I was looking for.

While the difference looks subtle, I got more of a full look with this one.

Top: regular pattern piece (pink top)
Bottom: pattern piece slashed and spread (yellow top)

For the blue top, I spread the slashed pieces out more and also lengthened the sleeve by 1-1/2″. Doing something like this is really easy. You just need to decide how dramatic you want the sleeve to look and spread accordingly. Cut to, but not though the top of the pattern so you can spread the pieces easily. Also make sure you have a piece of paper underneath the pattern because you’ll need to tape it down once you’ve gotten it the way you want.

That’s all there is to it. And the great thing about this is the top of the pattern stays the same so there shouldn’t be a need for additional adjustments to make the sleeve fit. This can be done on knits, like I have done, or on woven fabrics as well! Let me know if you give this technique a try. It’s an easy way to give a pattern a slightly different look.

My Take on McCall’s 7906

As many of you have seen, this skirt pattern is very popular among sewists and with good reason. It’s stylish, practical (it has pockets) and it’s easy to make. I made View C using a stretch cotton sateen that I fell in love with when I saw it.

In the picture above. I’m wearing it with a self tie belt I made from some leftover fabric I had. This particular version doesn’t have the self tie belt that View D does.

The pockets in the skirt are actually deep enough to be useful (LOVE that).

The only alteration I made to the pattern was to use the size 18 waist and size 16 hip. I really could have just made the 16 I think since the waist is just a bit looser than I would like (YAY me! All that exercise is paying off!).

But here are some other ways I styled this skirt.

The red T is Angela Wolf Patterns ruched T that I modified

Overall, I love this skirt and expect to get a lot of use out of it. The fabric is heavy enough that it’s not see through. This skirt has all the colors I enjoy wearing and should be a fun addition to my wardrobe!

Another Ruched T

As I mentioned in my last post, I am doing some “selfish sewing” although I really don’t consider it selfish and I don’t like to call it that. In a time where people always talk about self care, this is how I take care of myself. I rarely sew for others (been there, done that) and it wasn’t something I particularly enjoyed (with some exceptions). But, I learn best when I sew for myself. I can try things on as many times as it takes and try again without feeling like I don’t know what I’m doing. I can change my mind about certain things and not put pressure on myself to draft my own patterns or have a necessarily perfect result. So for my first #decemberbdaysew, I chose to make this Angela Wolf Patterns Ruched T.

I used fabric that I bought during my fabric haul a while back (this would be a good time to use some of that!). I’ll link this and some other options below. This has a four-way stretch which makes it perfect for this pattern. And for those who may be familiar with this, I used the medium twisted neck option for the shirt (and I did not do any ruching which is why it’s a longer T-shirt). This is such a terrific pattern and I think I will make another that I can use as a long-sleeve work-out top to go with some leggings I made previously.

This took a couple of hours to make. I like that there are sleeve (or no sleeve) options that I reviewed here. There are also some neck options that give you a standard T-shirt neckline or what I’ve done here. And there is the option to ruch the sides and/or sleeves of the shirt – I did neither for this one.

This is another favorite make of mine that I can wear with jeans or sweats/athleisure wear. Or I can wear it with a skirt or dress pants. Now, I’m off to probably make another one of these as I mentioned, then, who knows what’s next. I’ll decide when I figure out what I need most!

*The following are some affiliate links for the fabric above and some additional options.

Telio stretch ITY knit here. That’s the same as above.

This one is the same as what I used, but with red flowers.

The link for the fabric above is here.