First pattern is the free Stellan tee by French Navy now. I made the XS, for once cleverly not sizing down. I thought it was more important in this top to have a good fit around the hips, and sizing up a bit would keep the drop shoulder despite my wider shoulders. I'm happy with the fit.
I had, however, lower expectations of this tee (compared to the Equinox) because of the fit on other people. I thought it might look sloppy. The fabric is a modal blend with merino from the fabric store which I chose specifically to maximise the drape and minimise said potential sloppiness. I shortened the sleeve 1.5" as it's frequently commented on how nice and long it is (no comment) but made no other adjustments. I didn't do the back neck reinforcement because I was lazy and also impatient to make my tees! This is a free pattern, but it comes with a pattern piece for the back neck, as well as instructions for the reinforcement - very amazing for a free pattern. I will have to actually try that out sometime. (Soon! I am getting tired of the overlocked mess at the back.)
When I took my pictures I see drag lines from the front shoulders to the underarms. I think to some degree that happens any time there's a dropped shoulder, and the fix is to either make a larger size or modify the armscye. I however don't feel it and I love the fit of this - it feels like a RTW fitting tee. In a good way.
So I'm not fussed and I made another one with no modifications except to add a pocket. Which I put in a weird place and which is *not even straight*. sigh. Plus this fabric, which is a light cotton jersey by Marc Jacobs - got it from The Fabric Store in Dunedin - is patterned at an angle to the grain, and was really hard to fold on grain, so I gave up. This tshirt caused a surprising amount of drama, mainly because I adore this fabric. And yes, I get that you cannot see the pocket at all. It's there. At an angle.
The next half of this particular binge is the Equinox tee by Pattern Fantastique. I expected something novel from them because I have made the Falda coat and their stuff is very interesting and edgy. I made the size 8 to start out with. - I also bought the whole tshirt set of 3 shirts, so when I'm ready for another tshirt binge I'll already have some fodder.
This pattern is not printed on the fold so first off it's a lot of pages. Not much wastage though. There is a weird thing with the seam allowances going on which I finally just cut off. The neck band is not actually the correct length, you have to cut it to measure. This is *not* a free pattern so that seems like laziness. I used merino from the fabric store which rolled up to the limits of my patience, and I measured the band for the neck and cut the pattern piece to measure so I won't have to keep doing it - I figured merino is the least stretchy thing I use, and so although I'll have to measure the band each time, at least I save the 5" of fabric. The rolled edges drove me crazy but luckily a tshirt is a simple thing and even traumatic seaming doesn't last too long. This looked really shapeless while I was making it but also turned out great.
I decided though that it might be even nicer smaller and luckily the pattern was nested directly one inside the next so I cut down to a 6 and made version 2. It's organic cotton by Lillestoff and I got it from Ansje Handmade. I also shortened the body by 1". It's possible I cut the neck band a bit shorter, and it's not just possible, but certain that that was too short. It gathers up a bit. Hopefully time will loosen the fabric and settle it. Too tight, regarding neckbands, is probably better than the annoying sticky-up of too loose neckbands.
This fit is better and is what I'll do in the future when I make this tee again. (With tshirts it's always when...not if...)
I spent all week crazed looking forward to my tshirt binge! I have one more pattern to go but it will get its own post as it's a bit more complicated and I'm anticipating having Many Thoughts and I'm tired of tshirts and am going to make something else first.
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