Thursday, February 12, 2015

The garçon muscle tee

February is well on its way and  I had to start working on my sew alongs if I was serious about doing them all again this month. The Project Run and Play sew along tutorial/pattern was announced last week, the Mademoiselle muscle tee. Temperatures are around zero Celsius around here so the inspirational juices did not start flowing immediately.


With the opening of the link up I had renewed motivation and searched Pinterest for muscle tee inspiration. I was surprised with the results, muscle shirts are apparently usually covert in inspirational tough girl sentences (this is not an existing categorization, I know, but this was the best thing that came to mind). Muscle tees are often worn to gyms or during other sport activities and every form of inspiration is useful in those situations. I neither go to the gym nor jog nor any other related activity so the whole muscle tee scene is a bit foreign to me.



Looking through all those muscle tees I realized that a muscle tee should be "cool". I do not know anymore how I made the next step, but it somehow made me think of lions, those are cool right..? A lion has some very characteristic black lines in its face and I decided I would make a muscle tee for my son with a lion face. I looked around the house and found a perfectly yellow colored shirt in my husbands closet. My husband agreed he should have put this shirt on the upcycle pile a while ago and when I found a dark brown jersey in my stash I had all the materials I needed.


I wanted to frame the yellow of the face in brown jersey like manes usually frame the face. For a moment I thought about sewing some yarn between the seams, but quickly decided against it, this shirt was going to be cool, no costume. To create manes-look I decided to draw pattern pieces with asymmetrical width and length, a bigger back piece which would curve into the front.



My son is very skinny, both his body and arms have the size of those of a toddler. I therefore opted for drawing my own pattern based on a muscle tee he owned, instead of using the free pattern. I drew the arm wholes much smaller. I started my drafting with two the same back pieces. Then I cut the neckline lower on one of them  to create a front piece. Both from the shoulders and the sides I took 2.5 cm off and taped them to the back piece. I used 5 cm wide stripes of the brown fabric to finish the arm whole and neck.




Before I sewed up the tee I drew a lion's face on the front piece with textile marker. I sewed up the T in under 30 minutes with my lock. I also used a strip of jersey to finish the bottom hem (not visible in the pictures). My son wanted his trusted friend with him in the pictures, I didn't object. I was so focused on getting both the bear and a good shoot of the shirt, that only after the shoot I realized his fly was open...


I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian). 

51 comments:

  1. It turned out great! I love the idea of the back and shoulders wrapping around to the front to be the mane. Definitely cool and not costumey.

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    1. Thanks Angela, the wrapping is more subtle than I expected, but I still like it.

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  2. Wat leuk, ehh stoer ; ) Een echte insPINration dus, leuk!

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    1. Yep Pinterest is nog steeds een grote inspiratiebron.

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  3. Absolutely fantastic! I love what you did with a very basic pattern.

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    1. Thanks Trudy, so much fun how the new PRP format challenges me in multiple ways.

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  4. Heel gaaf shirt geworden. De tekening is echt een leeuw!

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    1. Ik was blij verrast met mijn eigen teken kwaliteiten.

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  5. Heel geslaagd! De leeuw is echt knap getekend!

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    1. Dank je Sylvia, ik was eerst van plan om hem erop te flocken maar toen ik geen perfect plaatje gecreëerd dacht ik dat ik het net zo goed erop kon tekenen. Het lukte verassend goed.

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  6. Heel leuk gedaan! Dat is een supercool shirt geworden.

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    1. Dank je Els en als ik die laatste foto bekijk wordt het een super coole hartebreker, die zoon van mij.

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  7. Replies
    1. Dank je Liezewiezewoes, ik maak al plannen voor de zomer om er een stuk of 5 tegelijk te naaien (met allemaal andere print natuurlijk) :)

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  8. mooi, en mijn oudste zoon heeft exact dezelfde lievelingsbeer hier thuis liggen^^

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    1. Wij hebben er twee gelukkig en tegenwoordig heeft hij ze allebei bij zich in bed. Die beer beleefd ook vele avonturen elke dag weer.

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  9. Love seeing a boy version!

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    1. I presume more will be coming seeing it is a perfect pattern for boys.

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  10. ik vind hem lekker cool :) missie geslaagd

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    1. dank je, ik ben ook erg blij dat ik voor de eenvoud siert strategie ben gegaan.

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  11. Dat zou hier thuis ook wel in de smaak vallen

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    1. Vergeleken met zo'n Theo is dit peanuts, deze heb je zo klaar voor de lunch.

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  12. Dju, ik was nu al 'n hele tijd m'n hoofd aan het breken wat ik deze keer zou maken. En laat ik nu hebben bedacht dat ik er één zou maken in een felle kleur met een zelf getekende zwart print erop. Mag ik weer helemaal opnieuw beginnen denken! Dju! :-)

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    1. Allez, 't is goed voor ene keer ;-)

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    2. Maar serieus, ik zou gewoon maken wat je van plan was, het wordt geheid een heel ander shirt.

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  13. Such a fun shirt! The dark does totally frame it like a mane. :D

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  14. Echt leuk! En toffe stoere foto's :-)

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    1. Dank je, ik doe extra mijn best qua fotos de laatste tijd.

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  15. Both my son and daughter would love this shirt! Love the combination!

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    1. Thanks Carin, my daughter would have prefered if I had taken your route for this months challenge ;)

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  16. What a cool shirt!! Great idea to frame the face!

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    1. Thanks Annie, I am happy other people also like it.

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  17. Nice, very nice!
    lekker stoer. schattig.

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    1. Dank je Majella, voordeel van dieren fase is dat ze ook een stuk makkelijk tekenen dan motors :)

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  18. I love that the back is the same color as the bindings. It really makes the lion's face pop.

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    1. Thanks Auntie Creates! I liked the sweater vest you made and wanted to react to it, but I did not find a reaction box on your blog, nor your emailadres.

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  19. I hope I've fixed the problem. Thanks for letting me know!

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  20. I really love what you did with this shirt. It looks amazing!

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  21. Very effective. A really good idea.

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  22. Aha de leeuw. Wauw dat met de hand! Chique hoor!

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  23. Such a cool muscle tee for a little boy!! Love the colors!

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  24. Super impressed with your lion face. And what a great idea!

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  25. Oh I love this! With the contrasting back and front..and the face! So great!!!
    -liZ

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