Stretch Out And Wait

Last night I sat down and finished a pattern I’ve been working on for a while. This is my aerial practice shirt. It keeps my arms, shoulders, and neck from getting rope burn when I’m practicing in class. It’s based on a surfing rash guard, with longer sleeves and a lower waist.

I spent a few hours carefully measuring out the prototypes I made a few years ago, and re-deriving the pattern. The original was cut out on tissue paper, and had all kinds of little correction notes written on it.

After measuring all the seam lengths and adjusting the geometry ever so slightly, I cut out a new pattern from my giant roll of tag board. Ironing it flat, I checked to make sure everything was covered. Stretch direction, seam allowance, date, pattern piece number.

There’s this fabric I’ve fallen in love with called “stretch bamboo”, and while I have my doubts as to how much bamboo fiber (“environmentally sound!! 100% natural!”!) it actually contains, it feels nice and holds up to wear pretty well. As a consequence, I’ve been making aerial practice clothes out of it for a few years now.

A while back, in an effort to wear something other than black or grey to class, I bought some new colors to play around with. Unfortunately, last night I discovered that the stretch ratio of some of the colors is dramatically different than others. The pattern worked perfectly, but the shirt was a little snug when I tried it on. It might stretch out with use, but that could take a while.

“Back to the drawing board”, as they say.