Treasure Pocket Tee Twirler Hack (April Fool's featuring guest blogger Annelise Pyne of Elliedactyl Designs)
**TNT Pattern piece available in the files section at DBD Sew and Chat on Facebook***
Hello! Annelise here from Elliedactyl! Katie and I have worked closely together for the past six months. It's been great to have someone “in the business” to laugh with, cry with, and commiserate with over the insurmountable details of designing and developing new patterns. When I'm up until 2AM going over every detail with a fine-toothed comb, one of the few things keeping me sane is knowing that I have a friend in another state doing the exact same thing for her own business. To say I cherish our friendship is an understatement.
The opportunity to collaborate with a fellow pattern designer is incredible. Katie can offer a unique perspective that I can only imagine because we are on opposite sides of the parenting spectrum; she has two boys and I have three girls. The ability to bounce ideas off of a #boymom has given me an advantage when developing new patterns for boys, and I know Katie likes the #girlmom point of view that I have to offer. Despite those differences and perspectives, one of our greatest commonalities is the love of laughter. And practical jokes. Laughing does keep you young, after all! So, when we noticed that April 1st was right around the corner, we just KNEW we had to work together to shake things up in the PDF pattern world. And so our scheming began!
The Treasure Pocket Tee (TPT) is instantly recognizable as the pattern that sky rocketed Duck Butt Designs to the top of the charts and brought a new, unique look to knit fabric sewing projects. When the Lyric Hoodie was first released with Elliedactyl, it immediately started popping up in every strike-off seamstress’s pattern repertoire and quickly flowed into the pattern library for hundreds of people. These well known patterns were the obvious choice for our April Fool's swap, but selecting patterns for our prank was the easy part. Figuring out how to keep it a secret- while still having testers to share the “new and amazing patterns"- was going to be far harder. We each divulged our scheme to a small handful of people and trusted that it would remain a secret.
To maintain the farce, Elliedactyl's version of the TPT needed to have the exact same construction as the original. Adding a “twirler” pattern piece was the perfect hack, and the "Taylor Pocket Tee and Twirler" was born! Below you'll find a short tutorial for this twirler hack, in addition to a free PDF download for the pattern piece needed to complete the look.
To offer something the original Lyric Hoodie pattern doesn't, Katie hacked the front to omit the placket, as well as showing the hoodie in a “muscle tee” version. With her fabulous tutorial on how to measure for a neckband, her hack is a no-brainer! Katie's "Phaux Placket Pullover" is downright brilliant. We hope that everyone can enjoy the harmless fun in creating this April Fools pattern swap joke! We hope wholeheartedly that you'll join in our laughter. If you haven't already picked up your copy of the Treasure Pocket Tee by Duck Butt Designs or the Lyric Hoodie by Elliedactyl, please take advantage of this weekend’s sale on both patterns! Happy April Fools!
So about this “twirler” hack… First, you will need to assemble your Treasure Pocket Tee as described in the pattern tutorial. Stop before hemming the bottom of the shirt. Side note! Do you see the girly craziness already? Yep, this fabric style is not something you will usually see in your favorite DBD patterns!
Tape your pattern pages together
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Cut pattern piece on the line and cut fabric as indicated on the pattern piece.
Layer your ruffle pieces with right sides together and your print going in the same direction. Sew the “short” side seams together.
Hem the bottom edge 1/2”.
Gather the top edge by first sewing two lines of basting stitches. I prefer to start and stop at each side seam so that I can gather the front and back at different times.
Sewing one row of basting stitches INSIDE of the 1/4” seam allowance, and one row of basting stitches OUTSIDE of the 1/4” seam allowance will keep your ruffle even and not stretch out the hemline of your shirt when you are done.
With right sides together, pin the top edge of the ruffle to the raw edge of the hemline by first matching up the side seams.
Next, find the center of the front half of your ruffle, and pin it to the center of the raw edge of your shirt front. Repeat for shirt back. Now you will have separated into quarters. This will help keep your ruffle evenly distributed along the bottom of the shirt.
To gather your ruffle, gently pull the bobbin threads on each of the 4 ends. You will be able to gather 1/4 of the ruffle at a time. This helps to prevent thread breakage caused by trying to distribute the gathers across the entire width of the ruffle. Pin generously and then sew in place.
Remove the line of basting stitches that was OUTSIDE of your seam allowance.