Striped Shirts

My new favorites are these striped shirts I made for the boys. I’ve been terrified of sewing stretchy fabrics (apart from college and velour type of fabrics, such as in the Dotty hoodies), but I’ve finally found a solution.

I experimented with all the different stretch stitches my sewing machine has, and none of them would work on thin t-shirt knit. I googled the problem and tried new settings again and again. Nothing would work. Then I found out that a twin needle (with ball points!) might do the trick, tried it and – just like magic – it worked! No rolling, puckering or holes, just a nice, even line of stitches. Pheew.  

The two striped knits have been in my stash for a few years. I bought them from Marimekko's outlet shop in Sulkava on a summer holiday trip, and now I could finally make something out of them. Both fabrics are really soft and lovely, and I can say that frequent washing hasn’t changed them a bit. Marimekko still has the quality they are known for, it seems.

The shirt pattern (Ottobre 4/2007) is pretty basic except for the detail on the back side; the keyhole snap closure fits my boys' big heads. The ribbing is in contrasting colors, lime green and brown.

Fabric Baskets

I admit it. Our kitchen table tops are often filled with a myriad of small things whose origin or purpose no one seems to know. It's been bugging me for a long time but the solution took a long time coming. I've seen plenty of fabric baskets in blogs and I thought I'd give it a try using the Ikea fabric scraps I had lying around. I made three baskets: a really big one for the newspapers and magazines, and two smaller ones for all the unidentifiable small things. Kind of like them, and they make the kitchen look much brighter (considering that the kitchen is all-white, not by our own choice!).