I have overcome another major obstacle.
At last!! I have completed a 100% original T-shirt. It is still only a prototype, and there are many parts that I am not yet satisfied with. Even so, I am extremely excited about it.
This is because I can now design T-shirts with genuine freedom. Until now, I bought commercially available T-shirts and dyed them. That limited the range of garments I could use. I could increase the number of sizes or colors, but the available styles and shapes remained restricted. I could not freely create men’s or women’s styles, slim or relaxed fits, or longer and shorter lengths. In particular, a raglan-sleeve T-shirt like the one in the photograph seemed completely impossible!!
An internet search for “T-shirt” produces countless results, but a T-shirt intended for botanical dyeing cannot be just any T-shirt. The fabric must be made from 100% natural fibers, and even the sewing thread must be 100% cotton or silk. Otherwise, the thread remains undyed. When stencil dyeing is involved, the structure of the knitted fabric also becomes important.
T-shirts made specifically for garment dyeing do exist, but they offer few choices in style and are also expensive. Because the garment is immersed in a hot dye bath, the neckline of an already-sewn T-shirt may stretch. I experimented with cotton T-shirts from many manufacturers, including garments sewn with cotton thread, and I also tried altering them to create the shapes I wanted. However, the work took a great deal of time and never produced a result that fully satisfied me.
A teacher at my dressmaking class saw what I was doing and said, “You should sew it yourself from the beginning. Once you become accustomed to the work, you can sew a T-shirt in about an hour.” She then said, “I’ll teach you!!” That was the beginning of a special private lesson in which she guided me through every step. At last, I reached the point where I could sew a T-shirt of a quality suitable for sale.
From dyeing to sewing, this is a “100% original Hitotsuya（ひとつ屋） T-shirt”!!
The design still needs improvement, but the result gave me a strong sense of possibility!! T-shirts are made from stretch knit fabric, so they require sewing techniques that differ from ordinary dressmaking. This time, creating the pattern, cutting the fabric, and sewing the garment took three hours. With practice, however, completing one in an hour may not be impossible.
On the way home from the lesson, I felt a little emotional and thought, “At last!! I have made it this far!!” More than three years have passed since I began studying sewing seriously. At first, I could not even thread a sewing machine, but now I can sew something as complex as a dress shirt. This T-shirt has made my dreams grow and greatly expanded the possibilities for expression. At the same time, I now feel that I must raise the level of both my dyeing techniques and my designs!! I am filled with nervous excitement and anticipation.