Polo Shirts and Yoga Pants

I started working on these polo shirts back on Sept 14th but then left them to work on other things. Way back in Nov 2013 when I had a wadder of a Polo Dress (Burda pattern) and wanted to revisit it.  The fabric  for the dress was a Lacoste knit with hardly any stretch and the dress had drag lines all over it.  This time I retraced the pattern to a top and sewed up a muslin with red cotton lycra fabric. As you can see from the pictures below, the fit was still terrible.  The placket instructions were equally horrid. 








So I scrapped this red one and went to work on another Polo shirt, same pattern, with more adjustments in a Black Cotton Lycra. I used the instructions from my Reader’s Digest Complete Sewing Guide for the placket; It did not turn out well.  The placket was terrible and the fit was bad.  I didn’t even bother to capture pictures of it.  I gave up on the Burda pattern, I even threw out my traced pattern, but I still wanted a polo shirt. 

I settled on Jalie 2562.  They always have such great instructions.  I cut a size “V” for everything except the hips which I cut to a size “Z”.  I made a 1/2” swayback adjustment, 1/2” square shoulder adjustment, and 1/2” forward shoulder adjustment (all of these are usual for me).

The first go at the pattern I sewed a beautiful placket, all perfect. Then realized I attached it to the BACK!!! omg.  So I lined up the front pattern piece to the back messed up piece of fabric and adjusted the back to be a front - only with a shorter placket, and then cut out a new back.  The placket is tiny on it but I still love it. 



There are a few drag lines still, but I can live with them.  If you can’t see, that is Pac-Man fabric on my collar I used 3 black snaps on this placket.



Fabric: 1.5 yards purchased the day before I sewed it.  Blue Cotton Lycra from Wal-Mart. $8.96 total.  Pac man fabric is a woven from Timeless Treasures, now out of print. The placket and collar are interfaced.



The shirt has a nice collar stand, I’ve popped it up here.



Happy with the fit, I wanted to perfect my placket making skill just a tad more so I cut out and sewed a second polo shirt.  I like this one even more. Still with Jalie 2562, same everything as the blue one.



4 white snaps were used on the placket of this shirt. This placket is the correct size ;-)



Fabric: 1 and 3/8 yard of Black/White Floral Jersey Knit purchased July 2015 from Fashionfabricsclub for $5 total. 97% Cotton, 3% Lycra.  I used scraps of White Cotton Lycra for the placket and collar, both are interfaced as well.





I am satisfied with my placket making to move on to my fall sewing list, my henley is already cut out and waiting to be sewn! 



And those pants I’m wearing?  They are my latest Jalie 3022 Yoga pants.  Size: waist “X” and my hip “BB” – these are each 2 sizes above my real measurements as Jalie runs slim.  I used a bit of the black/white fabric for the band at the waist.  These are such comfortable pants, I spend many days wearing these and my other teal pair.  Sadly, this fabric is not good quality and has pilled after one wash.  So I must re-make these again! Ugh!





These pants do not sew up that fast because there is so much topstitching involved, yet I reach for them all the time so I am pushed to make more.  These were on my Fall Sewing List.

Fabric: 2 yards Black Cotton Lycra, Purchased August 2015 for $13 total.  This fabric is toted to be great quality, medium weight from Girl Charlee.  Sadly they are thin and pill right away, therefore not great quality.  Plus, it took 2 weeks to get to me!  I will no longer buy from there but will return to getting my good cotton lycra from Purpleseamstress who ships to me within 3 days.
Sewing Time for pants: 2 hours