On our last little jaunt out of town, we were headed west in the car, and I looked over at my husband, who was driving.  My heart was happy, cause he was wearing a shirt I made for him.  I have more than one serger, but had been practicing my fine finishing of woven seams, with flat felled and french seams.

Folkwear’s Egyptian Shirt had been a challenge, but it has pockets and a cool reverse facing around the neckline.   I even used a fancy seam on those cuffs.  Those cuffs.  I looked over at his hand on the wheel and those cuffs, and I couldn’t reconcile them.  They were not what I remembered.  I followed the line of his arm up the sleeve, as we sped down the highway, and noticed the armscye seam.  There was something odd about it.

I realized he had it on inside out.  It was hard to keep quiet, but as we were on the interstate, I worked hard not to say anything to him.  After all, I had also worked really hard to make neat finished seams inside and out, and there really was little difference.

Same thing happened on the Breeze shirt just the other day.  Another reverse facing, another shirt put on inside out.

I had some interesting fabric purchased from JoAnn’s some time ago.  I wish I had purchased more, but…  It is a deep brown on one side and a light brown on the other.  I love reversible things, and decided to make him a truly reversible shirt.

Luckily, I had this pattern printed, and, the 52 week sewing challenge for week 34 was to make something with a bias bound edge or FOE.  Well FOE would work for this, but I had fabric, with two sides, and a rotary cutter, mat and ruler, so not bias, but bound for sure!

When making tanks, I like to cut the strips for binding/bands first.

I like this pattern, cause the front and back are the same, just a swoop from the back neckline to cut the front makes cutting faster.  Also the little bit of grading I made for his particular curves are easy if there is only one pattern piece.

Just like my mother told me to do so many decades ago, I offset the front/back by about 3/8 inch, and sewed with a 1/4 to 3/8 inch seam. These measurements work for a pattern with a 1/2 inch seam allowance.  This fabric sewed beautifully across the horizontal grain, but I had to change my needle to get a vertical seam to sew without skipping stitches.

Then I opened up the seam.  Note to self to cut more neatly next time.Wrapped the longer seam around the shorter seam, and top stitched that.  My #20 foot really comes in handy.  I moved the needle on my Bernina 1630 to the left (but not all the way) to make the second seam. And stitched.  If this was a woven, I might have pressed that larger seam in half so that the sewing would go easier, but this mystery poly blend was not going anywhere near my iron.

I stitched the shoulder and both side seams like this.

Then I sewed the short seams in my bands. Took care to keep my neck and arm bands separate. Marked center points, and serged those bands on.  In keeping with the reversible theme, I even made a band for the hem.

Once the bands were serged on, I wrapped the bands around to the other side, tucked in that raw edge, and with my favorite #20 foot, and the needle in the almost far left position top stitched with a wobble stitch.  Wobble stitch is a Sandra Betzina term that looks like a straight stitch, but is a narrow zig zag.  At .5 wide and 2 long, it stretches nicely.  Best here, to top stitch the contrast band on top, so you can see where you are sewing and make sure that bobbin thread is a good match!

It did not take long, and all the seams were done!  Now he can wear this any which way he wants, except maybe backwards!

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