The Shirt That Took 3 Hours

I had great plans to sew up a bunch of stuff for Kid's Clothes Week this week, but fall had other ideas and all four of us came down with colds. Colds aren't so bad when it's just YOU dealing with the cold, but when kids are involved it's all over. Everyone wants to be held, given specific snacks, and given drinks allllllll day long. And all you want to do is take a nice hot shower (and for maybe somebody else to give you snacks and drinks?)

On top of being sick, I also babysat for a friend's 2 kids yesterday when she was in a bind. The kids were great, but oh my gosh you guys. All. The. Things. Do you know how many toys 4 children under 5 can take out in the course of 30 minutes?? A lot. And they always want to play with the messiest stuff, like Play-Doh and finger paints. In my sickness-clogged state, I didn't have the strength to tell them no. Let's just say I treated myself to some chocolate and a long shower after that.

But  guess what, I did manage to make one thing for KCW! Too bad it wasn't for the kid who actually needs the most new clothes.

I found the yummiest remnant of blackberry colored reversible knit at Joann's the other day. It was sparkly on one side, and had small stripes on the other, which you can see better in the picture below. I also got this crazy idea that I wanted to try to show off the reversible knit by sewing with flat felled seams (usually reserved for pants and delicate fabrics) to encase all the raw edges, that way it would look nice and finished whichever way it was worn.

Great idea in theory, but I quickly discovered why flat felled seams are reserved for woven fabrics. Oh, and also pinning all those flat felled seams on knit takes for.ev.er., which is ultimately what took me 3 hours to make this baby.

I cut all the fabric so that the sleeves were attached, dolman-style. The sewing went relatively smoothly until I hit those dang sleeves because I was basically shoving my sleeve into the machine toward the neck hole and eventually ran out of wiggle room. The result is some wonky lines as you can see above. All that finagling added extra time (and stitch picking.)

But I did get the result I was looking for, for the most part. I flipped the cuffs of the sleeves and bottom hem up to show off the other side of the fabric, and I flipped the neckline casing so that the reverse side shows as well.

You know what though, despite the 3+ hours I spent sewing this top, I really love it and so does Haley. I really want to make up a few more and try out a different method next time (maybe french seams instead?) The only problem is that I can't find any more reversible knit anywhere! Any helpful leads??

Maybe I'll have better luck with the next season of KCW. How about you guys, anyone else manage to get anything sewn up for KCW?