KwikSew 3338

I can't stop sewing this pattern! I am on tee shirt number 13 right now. The pattern is beautifully drafted in a plain tee shirt style and the pattern pieces fit together nicely. All the shapes and notches line up, no nasty surprises in the envelope, a relief after my recent experiences with some other pattern companies, you know, the companies that use that brown rippy tissue and sometimes don't bother to label the pattern pieces at all.

Typical of KwikSew the illustration on the pattern envelope is pretty plain. And typcial of KwikSew this is an excellent pattern.



















The photo of a real shirt on a real person at the KwikSew website shows exactly how the pattern fits. 3338

Padding the Dressform

Matilda needs a little padding to be more like me. The batting is an inexpensive polyester quilt and craft batting that was in my stash for years.

I stretched a base layer of the batting around Matilda then started adding cut pieces in key places. The batting pieces were sewn together with big loose stitches using a long needle I had from making Cabbage Patch dolls for my kids.

To make my shape I looked in the mirror at myself next to Matilda and kept trying the Moulage on her to see how it filled out.








When it looked like I had enough padding I pinned the moulage edges to the batting. I put bias tape on the arm and neck edges and machine stitched it down with the batting edge sandwiched between. The batting is machine sewn in the hem of the moulage and I hand stitched along the zipper. This made a removable "jacket" for Matilda.














Zipped up in her denim jacket Matilda looks almost dressed. The shaping with this jacket is not perfect, but it is surprisingly close. I would like to try a moulage with full princess seams front and back plus some other shaping seams and use some denser batting. The jacket compresses too easily now. I also need a form with a smaller and less perky bust. Matilda's skyward protrusions prevent me from really using this for blouse fitting.

Tuscan Shirt Finished

That "inexpensive" black eyelet that I used for the first shirt is fugly fabric. Whatever inspired me to buy it? JoAnn must have been giving it away the day I was there. Here is a link to a bad photo of the shirt. I won't sully this page with such fuglyness.

Going from truly bad fabric to truly great fabric, I made the next shirt in a crinkled silk chiffon from Emma One Sock. Much better!


Not a much better photo though. My camera is definitely showing it's age, sigh. Anyway, back to the shirt, the fabric's print is a bit large and bright for my taste but I think it will be a fun top to wear with jeans in the fall. The crinkly silk is delicious to wear. Those are black shiny snaps from Snap Source.

I made two more Tuscan Shirts, one in a rayon faille and one in a lightweight tencel. Both still need buttons. This pattern really is best in a drapey rayon or silk type fabric. Great pattern!

The Tuscan Shirt

Loes Hinse makes amazing patterns! Everything fits together perfectly, the construction is brilliantly simple, and the garments look great. There is nothing more one could want or need from a pattern. I wish the big four would get a grip and provide real patterns like this.

I used the blouse draft generated from my moulage to check the sizing and see where I might need to make adjustments. What a useful tool this is, it takes the guesswork out of fitting.

This photo is from Loes Hinse's site at the Tuscan Shirt page.

My first shirt will be a black cotton eyelet, an inexpensive fabric from JoAnn. It will not be a loss of fine fabric if the shirt turns out to be something I don't enjoy wearing.