August 14, 2013

Embroidered Stretch Tabi

This morning I finished another small project! Another pair of stretch tabi! They are made from an old tank top I had since I was in high school (13 years?) that had a small bit of embroidery along the neckline.



I used Saiya-chan's pattern again, but did some more experimenting. I had previously worked up a way to make them with lining, but this time I wanted to add some sort of closure to the back, since I found that I tend to snap the sewing threads when trying to fit my feet into the small sock opening. I used velcro for the back, it is what I had on hand for now and I figured it would work best with dealing with the stretch. I found that ribbed cotton jersey fabric stretched out really badly in my sewing machine, even with using an even-feed pressure foot, so the velcro helped even out some of that stretching that happened in the back.

I learned some things making these tabi, so now I look forward to the next pair. Next time I think I will add fusible interfacing to the sole and the edges of the back opening where the closure is, in order to prevent those pieces from stretching. I think that if I do that, I can use buttons to close up the back of the tabi!

2 comments:

  1. The color and embroidery are very nice !So cute tabi !
    Thank you for the like to the pattern, I think I will try to make some !

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  2. Thank you Kaeru! I love Saiya-chan's pattern very much! Last year, I wrote a quick tutorial on using Saiya-chan's tabi pattern to make stretch tabi with a lining, it is posted here: http://seattletacomakimonoclub.blogspot.com/2012/06/lined-stretch-tabi-tutorial.html
    This time, I modified the pattern to use a velcro closure in the back, and soon I hope to write a tutorial on how to make tabi that close in the back with buttons!

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