Franken-tee

The Franken-tee can be boiled down to: two t-shirts mashed together, with some hearts embroidered and patched onto the plainer side. That does take some of the glamour away from it, so I'll go through the more drawn-out explanation of my process anyway - to pander to my own sense of pride.

The two t-shirts I butchered to make the Franken-tee originated - as many of my t-shirts do - from my dad's T-shirt museum (a collection of retired t-shirts in the loft). It's fairly obvious what the original design of the skeletal side of the Franken-tee was. The plain side came from a Mission Impossible top, with a small red logo on the front of the unused half.
I used my sewing machine (a mechanical Bernina 532-2, see post linked below) to sew the two t-shirts together down the middle. I was a little worried about the collar being scratchy because of the seam sticking out, so I sewed it down at the top to mitigate that problem.

Old Sewing Machines

For summaries of each machine, see photo gallery at the end. It was the day my grandmother’s sewing machine exploded. Maybe exploded is a bit of an exaggeration, but it did make a loud popping sound and started leaking smoke out of the casing. It also smelt really bad, like

The PicklingWildLéonie

Below, are some progress photos I took. The first was when I was still trialling ideas for designs to embroider on the plain side. Adding a heart was an instinctual choice. I made the feature patch out of some scrap fabric, using a messy blanket stitch around the edges to give it a rougher look. I decided against using the pocket design showed below, because it felt like it was "trying too hard". In this instance, the simplicity of a repeated heart design felt the best fit for filling up the large, blank space.
After I finished the initial heart patch, I decided by no means was I going to be going through the pain of making any more. So I stuck to simple chain stitch embroidery for the rest of the hearts - rather than alternating between patches and embroidery.

From the beginning of making the t-shirt, I was planning on giving it to my older brother, Ash, if he liked it. I only managed to show it to him once it was already complete, so it was a bit of a surprise, but he seems very happy with it (which definitely boosts my ego a little). He didn't seem keen on modelling it for me unfortunately, but has reassured me that it does fit well and isn't at all scratchy at the collar.
... The only downside to making this top for him, is that he's now commissioned me to alter his denim jacket as well. At least I know what my next project will be.

Photo Gallery

(Photos not included above)