KCW day 2: Snake shirt

During the previous KCW I decided to not do early morning/before work and school photo shoots anymore. I really try to step up my game on the photo front, but like usual, I make exceptions to my own rules. I almost finished this shirt yesterday evening. I still had to steam the seams, hand stitch a 2 cm seam and add eyes. My son new that I made this shirt and he was so excited that he wanted to wear it today! Having your kid excited about your sewed garments really is the best motivation. One rule that I really try not to break is letting the kids wear clothes before I make pictures, so this morning I finished the shirt in 10 minutes and shoot a few quick pics. My son doesn't like long shoots anyway.

I got the idea for this shirts when I was actually sketching (which I never do) some designs that I wanted to sew this week. I noticed that I mostly drew dresses for my girls and I wanted my son to share in the action. I wanted a garment in which my son was covered with animal, but without being a costume. I think I succeeded, although I know that the costume line is different for all.

When I showed the pics to my mother this morning she assumed that I sewed the snake on an existing shirt, but I didn't. With hindsight this might have been just as good, but I choose a different route. I taped two (front and back) shirt paper pattern pieces together, as if I made a paper shirt. Then I cut the whole thing in long stripes, like when you make your own bias. I cut the strips from jersey with a seam allowance and sewed the stripes onto each other. below you can see what I mean, there is no side seam. I didn't have to fixate the fabric so the fabrics kept all their stretch. I made some pictures during the drafting process, anybody interested in a super small tutorial on this shirt?

My son has a sensitive skin and I didn't want the shirt to be covered in serger seams on the inside. Therefore I made flat seam, faking coverlock seams. An added bonus is that the snake really lies on the fabric. I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the seams, but they look like the ladder seams in this tutorial. I tried this seam look before (last year) and realized that I get the best result if I make a two-thread seam on my serger (so I actually didn't use the information from the tutorial). For this shirt I used the right needle, next time I will try the left needle, I assume that I get a bit thicker seam in that case.

When I told my son about the snake shirt he first wanted the snake to be able to open his mouth. I had been planning to just sew the head like I did with the body. I settled our creative differences by not attaching the head to the shirt, so the snake can lift its head. This also made the closing of the shoulder seam easier than how I had first planned it so this was a clear win win situation. I added a tongue, I know it is not anatomically correct (it should be forked) but I was in a hurry to (almost) finish the shirt yesterday evening and choose the quick solution.

The fabric I used for the snake is from Lillestoff, cut in a small strip it really gives a snaky vibe, although I think nobody would think that is they would see the fabric normally.  If I remember well I bought it at Joyfits I also ordered the uni-orange fabric there. I made the eyes with silver flock foil.

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).