Do you sew for the men in your life? I used to sew cute shirts, shorts, and pants for my son when he was little, but haven’t made him a thing in over 25 years. I made my husband a bathrobe a good 15 years ago, but that’s it. I sew for myself and my baby granddaughter all the time, and have made quite a few things for my daughter. But the men in my life seem to get left out, until now.
I decided it was time to let them be the beneficiaries of my makes. Since my husband now funds my fabric and pattern budget 🙂 and tolerates all the time I spend sewing, he deserves something nice. My son was kind enough to help me finish setting up my website (as I am definitely not a technogeek) and deserved a reward for his help and patience.
So I decided to make my husband and son Sinclair Patterns Men’s Kai Tee Shirts out of Phee Fabrics rayon spandex. Wow! Normally I am not a fan of rayon spandex. It’s not that I don’t love the softness of rayon spandex, but generally speaking it is not a fun fabric to work with. It’s thin and flimsy. It gets all wrinkly. It stretches and gets bagged out of shape. It’s slippery and a pain to sew.
Since I really like Phee Fabrics and have always been impressed with their quality, I decided to give their rayon spandex a try. Wow! It is so much nicer than your typical rayon spandex. It’s way more substantial (13 oz.), has beautiful recovery, doesn’t come out of the dryer as a wrinkly mess, and even makes great bands on your tees. I am using their rayon spandex for all kinds of makes now!
My next question was what pattern to use? Some of my favorite “go-to” pdf pattern companies have shirt patterns, but most of them seem to be raglan sleeve styles. Also, my son is tall, and my husband is not. It’s not that I’m not used to having to lengthen patterns, since I am tall, but really, who wants to use their precious sewing time having to adjust their pattern? Enter Sinclair Patterns. Their patterns come with height options! Regular, Tall and Short. How amazing is that? So I bought, downloaded and printed off the Men’s Kai in Tall and Regular. Traced off my husband and son’s sizes and got to sewing.
The shirts came together quickly and easily, and the neckband lengths in the pattern were perfect. I don’t know about you, but I always wait until I have my shoulder seams sewn together to cut my neckbands. I measure the opening and calculate the appropriate length, and frequently have to make longer bands than a pattern suggests. It drives me crazy, but I have been burned too many times by a tight, gathered looking neckband to trust most patterns. The Kai pattern neckband was perfect on both sizes. It makes me confident that I will have the same success with their other patterns.
All that was left to do was photograph my makes. Getting my guys to agree to be photographed took a minute, but they had fun at my quick photo session. And I snuck into a selfie, since who wouldn’t want to be photographed with these two cuties? So give new patterns and fabrics a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! Happy sewing!
Sew Beach Life 