"The simplest things are the hardest to execute"

Now, that's generally a true statement but currently it feels like an excuse or a cop out. Because, rather than this being a difficult project (they're t-shirts, come on!) it's more that I got complacent. Now you can see me grump and grouse about it.

I needed a bit of a palette cleanser project so I figured some jersey ringer tees would be perfect. They're not difficult to sew and I got to use my serger for the majority of construction. Fun and painless!

The parts I'm not thrilled with is the fit and the finish. The sleeve is narrower than I'd like around the bicep. You might be able to see the drag lines and armpit diggy-ness if you're looking closely. The drafting was swift and untested because making a muslin for simple, shapeless knits always seemed like a waste of time. Curse my impatience! (And why did I cut the fabric for both shirts instead of making only one first!!)

The only parts of construction that really made me lose it were the bindings around the sleeve cuff and neckline. They got stretched out on my regular machine (I don't have a coverstitch or a walking foot) and they look sloppy. I was using my twin needle until it started skipping stitches on the second shirt, so I spent a long time ripping seams and switched to an uglier zig-zag stitch. I was too weary to care about the aesthetics at this point.

I finished this seam without incident, went to bed, and the next day my needle started skipping. Was it mad at me?

These cotton jerseys (from Minerva!) have a 5% spandex content, which I'm quickly learning is not my preference. I'd rather have something with a little less body and maybe even less stretch. Just another example of me being frustratingly inexperienced with knits. Also, I was so begrudgingly committed to the contrasting bindings that I was internally grumbling about it at my local fabric store. I don't wanna have to buy that 👐 much when I only have plans to use this 🤏 much! And then I grumbled harder when I couldn't find matching colors, weights, or fiber content either in ribbing or plain jersey. It took trips to two other stores before I got what I needed.

Okay, upon further inspection nothing is absolutely horrible, I'm just disappointed that something so no-frills ended up being kinda eh. Which is what I was going for somewhat (again, just t-shirts), but that means the fit has to be perfect which it is not. And if I look back at a project and find I didn't enjoy making it, I'm much less satisfied when I wear it. If I had stuck to my standard neckband instead of binding and elected to have no visible stitching on the exterior, I'd have better tees. But then I wouldn't have tried anything new.

I do believe my skills reached a point where I can produce good results on average. The perfectionist in me needed the reminder that I can and will still screw up from time to time. The scrappy, obstinate jerk in me reminds me that it's not the end of the world when I do. After all, nobody else can observe me and my suffocating 'pits from afar.