Striped Longsleeve

My latest make - another hybrid blouse.

Last year in their September issue Burda released a boatneck pattern and I watched it eagerly for almost two months, until I caught a sale and bought it. Unfortunately the pattern didn't live up to the hype - in reality it was somewhat shapeless and the arm opening was much wider than the sleeve circumference - a definite no-no in pattern making. I made the blouse, making corrections in the process, but was dissatisfied with the design.

So, when I bought this soft drape cotton-viscose striped knit fabric, I knew I wanted a boatneck fitted tee, something similar to my favourite Schkatulka tees or the tried-and-true Burda 6820 basic fitted tee, but with a twist - the boatneck design element from the 09/2021 issue.

And thus this hybrid blouse was born - the body up to the armholes and the sleeves are from Burda 6820, and the parts above the armholes of the front and the back are from the #102 09/2021, with the necessary corrections in width, so that the armholes would fit the 6820 sleeves. 

How about stripe matching! :)))

When I cut the body of the 6820, I added 1.5 cm seam allowances, but took off only 0.8 cm on the overlocker, so the body is a bit more relaxed than the usual fit of the 6820 for size 36. I also added 3 cm to the width of the sleeves at the cuffs, so that the sleeves are not so fitted and I can pull them up easily on a warm spring/autumn day.

 

Pattern: Burda 6820 + Burda 102 09/2021

Size: 36, with corrections

Fabric: striped cotton-viscose knit

Time to make: 3 days

As, with my first make of this pattern, I sewed fixed the overlap at the shoulders - the open shoulder didn't sit well at all, but the fixed closure is comfortable and makes the T-shirt just a little bit more unusual than a simple store-bought sailor t-shirt.

Now that I have this boatneck pattern out of my system, I can move on to other T-shirt designs.

White Boatneck Blouse

And one more blouse for Gaby. I've been eyeing this boat neck top pattern from Burdastyle 09 / 2021 for almost two months and I finally came to making it.

 It is a simple and straight forward t-shirt pattern with 3/4 sleeves and what makes it a bit more than a basic tee is the neckline, faced with a contrast bias band. The extended shoulder ends of the back and the front overlap and create an interesting visual effect. I sewed the extended back piece in place, as I didn't want the neck to gape and I find the resulting neckline quite comfortable to wear.

I cut the blouse size 34 without modifications, but I had to make some in the course of the making of the top, as the circumference of the sleeve head turned out to be smaller than the sleeve opening. Of course, I checked the paper pattern to make sure it wasn't my doing, but alas - it's a constructional mistake. In order for the sleeve to fit properly, its head has to be a bit bigger or equal (for knits) to the armhole, but not smaller. To compensate, I elongated the head and simultaneously took in the arm opening a little (some 8 mm on both sides of the side seams). If I ever decide to replicate the pattern, I should have this issue in mind and cut the pieces to fit better in advance.

My fabric is cotton jersey, soft but fairly thin, so I suppose the top will not be very appropriate for the coming winter months. However, I hope it will get some wear come spring, its white and black colors should make it easy to combine with bottoms.

Pattern: #102 of Burdastyle 09 / 2021

Size: 34

Fabric: cotton jersey

Time to make: 2 days

Teal Boatneck Tee

The third of the blouses I made out of the big piece of double knit teal fabric - a boat neck tee for me. I drafted this t-shirt in October, using my favourite simple Shkatulka tee. 

The new teal blouse is almost identical to that brick one I made last year, which I gifted to Gaby. The only difference is that I shortened the length by 2 cm and the sleeves - I added cuffs with buttons and real buttonholes.

 
I came up with the idea for the cuffs out of necessity - I didn't have enough fabric for full length sleeves and I did want 3/4 sleeves. I could have gotten away with simple 4-5 cm cuffs, but I remembered a set of 6 black buttons which I bought recently and decided to add them to the T-shirt for some interest.

I couldn't have just added the buttons without making them operational, where's the fun in that - so real buttonholes. I also made the cuffs symmetrical, so that both cuffs are closing away from the body - a detail I hadn't thought through initially. But when I finished the sleeves and looked at myself in the mirror, I realized that the rules for male and female button closure do not apply to sleeve cuffs - they have to be symmetrical, to reflect the symmetry of the body. So I had to unpick the left cuff and redo it the other way.

Pattern: Shkatulka Fitted Tee, modified with boat neck and long sleeves with cuffs

Size: Russian 42 (EU 36, S)

Fabric: double knit

Thread: black polyester (overlocker), teal polyester (Elna)

Time to make: 2 days 

 

My favourite part of the tee - the boat neck. In my notes in October I described in detail how I made the neck and this time I simply followed my notes - it saved me so much mind wrecking! Otherwise I always wonder which part where goes first :)

All in all, a very nice simple blouse, which was ideal for today's walk in the park under the warm January sun - we had a very rare pleasant and warm sunny day here in Sofia. 

And the snowdrops in front of our building are already in bloom!

Mandy Boat Tee

Another striped tee I made this weekend. The pattern is the very popular free Tessuti pattern - Mandy Boat Tee.

The pattern provides four sizes, each of which covers two sub-sizes. I printed the smallest size - XXS and XS, and as my fabric is rather stiff cotton knit without lycra, not very fluid and with limited stretch, I reduced the width of the body by additional 6 cm (-1.5 cm out of each front and back piece).

Pattern: Mandy Boat Tee by Tessuti

Size: 1 (xxs and xs), reduced by 6 cm in width, 2 cm in length

Fabric: striped cotton jersey

Thread: white polyester

Time to make: 3 days

One of the features of this pattern I liked most is the boat neck - this pattern is made for stripes, look at that chevron! The instructions provide an extensive pictorial tutorial on how to make the tee and, as the pattern is very popular, there are also a lot of makers' photos and videos around the web.

Although the weather is getting colder and winter is coming :), I chose the 3/4 length sleeves - to me they seem more consistent with the wide boxy body.

Make That Look: Zara Boat neck Top

My latest make for Gaby - an imitation of a Zara boat neck top we both have. I bought a piece of T-shirt cotton knit with navy blue and white stripes and of course the logical pattern for it was a boat neck top. I found plenty of useful tips on youtube on how to turn a crew neck pattern into a boat neck top, so i started with my Shkatulka tee pattern, modified the neckline and extended the sleeves to 3/4 length.

In order to match the stripes and make the shirt perfectly symmetrical, I cut two pieces of each front and back paper pattern, glued them together and drafted and cut the pattern pieces flat in a single layer. Even working in this manner I had to fix and align each individual stripe. From the constant movement of the fabric it was evident that if I had opted to cut the T-shirt pieces on the fold, as one usually does, the pattern placement would have been a disaster. It did take a lot of time to cut the pattern, but it was totally worth it!

The boat neck  - I watched half a dozen videos on finishing the boat neck and neither provided useful tips for the kind of finishing I was looking for - fully covered neckline and shoulders. So I had to figure it out myself. First I cut a band of navy blue cotton jersey and finished the neckline of the back. Then I stitched a longer band of the same jersey to the neckline and the shoulders of the front. Then I attached the shoulders of the back to the front. Then I folded the band to cover the front neckline and both shoulders. Finally I stitched flat the covered shoulders to the back. Et voilà - a perfect covered boat neck and shoulders!

And here's my own label, discretely attached to the back of the T-shirt.

Stripe-matching - that's another story :) I sewed all the side seams on the overlocker, carefully pinning together every other dark stripe, to ensure as accurate matching as possible. 

Pattern: Boat Neck Top, modified Shkatulka top

Size: 42, reduced to 40 (equivalent to EU 34, xs)

Fabric: 100% cotton knit

Thread: polyester, white and navy blue

Time to make: 2 days

The hems are finished first on the overlocker and then folded, ironed and hemmed on the sewing machine with white thread and double needle.

The view of the back