Kids’ Winter Wool Interlock Shirts

Off and on since the weekend, I have been working on long sleeve wool t-shirts for the kids. This is the 100% merino wool (very soft) interlock from Covered Caboose. The wool comes natural in color. I use black thread because I am going to dye all the shirts in darker colors. I’ve finished constructing one shirt for each child.

Due to various circumstances (shrinkage and refinement of pattern), the first two shirts of this type I made for Jeff last year weren’t working great for him, so I cut those apart and reconstructed them into 2 t-shirts for Haniya. They are black already. It took me about 5 minutes each to: cut the sleeve out, slit up the side seam, cut out a smaller armhole in the front/back pieces, cut down the sleeve width, reattach the sleeves, sew down the side seam/arm seam. I love to recycle!

So Haniya has 3 shirts done. On deck for Naomi and Mikah are two more each. They’re cut out and the sewing has begun, but I’ve been sick and also busy with other things.

I currently have black and brown dye. A little boring for the kids (and me, too, truth be told) so Haniya and Naomi helped me pick out three more colors from Dharma Trading Co — teal, silver, and periwinkle. When it arrives, we’re going to have fun dye all the shirts!

Before sewing the wool, I felt it. It does most of its shrinking then (although it will continue to shrink for all its life if heated or agitated). However, it is still so stretchy after felting that even a little shrinkage from the dyeing process doesn’t affect fit. So I prefer to dye after the construction. This way I don’t waste dye on fabric scraps.