This is the second time I've made this pattern but I never got around to photographing the first one. It's a chocolate brown bamboo jersey (and doesn't photograph well). I made it just before Christmas and it has been a wardrobe staple all winter. This is Lydia from Burda Style and the pattern cost me all of a dollar. It doesn't come with very good instructions so I followed the ones in Sew U: Home Stretch instead. I also followed Wendy's suggestion for sizing and measured a few of my favourite t-shirts to pick a size that would fit well. The sizing chart that comes with the pattern is for clothes of woven fabrics and I ended up with a much looser shirt than I was expecting the first time around.


My fabric is blue cotton from NearSea Naturals; I think it was called "Castles in the Sky". It's very lightweight and very comfortable. The sewing was pretty quick, especially since I left the edges raw on the hem and cuffs. I trimmed the neckline down a bit and bound it instead of using the facings the pattern calls for. To match the raw cuffs and hem, I left the edges of the binding raw and showing too. It makes for a very casual relaxed shirt. The pattern comes out plenty long (I like my t-shirts to come down to my hips) and has waist shaping which I think makes it very flattering. Putting in the sleeves was a bit fiddly but the usual lots-of-pins-and-go-slowly technique was all that was required to get them in nicely.


I've worn this shirt several times since I finished it and it is already a staple. It goes well with a skirt or jeans and looks nice enough to go out for dinner. Being all cotton and lightweight I don't find it too much on warm days and it is going to be a wonderful base layer under sweaters this winter.

I'm wearing this t-shirt right now and I love it. I made it two weeks ago (you saw a peak of the fabrics in my weekly 365 post) and have worn it as frequently as I could wash it since then. It's really that comfortable.

The fabric is a bamboo jersey (in two colours) that I got from The Workroom a while ago. The pattern is a version of the raglan style from Wendy Mullon's book Sew U: Home Stretch. Wendy provides wonderful guidance through the world of knits. She makes them so much less intimidating and prompted me to do something that I'd never have thought of by myself: I read my sewing machine manual.

You see, I don't own a serger (overloack machine) - I'd love to but right now I don't - so I'm sewing my knits with a regular sewing machine. It actually works pretty well if you follow Wendy's suggestions and check out what your machine manual has to say. It turns out my machine has a few different stretch stitches including a straight stretch stitch (say for topstitching binding and hems) and a mock-overlock stitch (for doing all the seams). It's slower than a serger and you have to trim all the seam allowances yourself but it really opens up the range of things you can play with.


For my t-shirt I mostly followed Wendy's suggestions for Raglan Project #1 "A League of Your Own" but added few alterations of my own: When I tried on my t-shirt part way along I thought the neckline was a bit high to be comfortable for me so I lowered it 1" everywhere and 2" at the centre front. I didn't have any 1x1 rib to use for the neckline so I did a binding instead; it doesn't lie quite as flat as ribbing would but I still think it looks very nice. I also added only 2" to the length of my t-shirt and didn't do the scooped hem; it would be nice to have a longer shirt but this was the absolute longest I could make my pattern pieces and still have them fit on the grey jersey.

I love the colours in this shirt by the way; the camera really doesn't do them justice. The dark brown makes me think of espresso and very dark chocolate. The grey is one of those fantastic changeable colours that is sometimes grey and sometimes mauve and sometimes blue.


This pattern, or something like it, is very high on the list of things I want to sew right now. I can hardly wait to get my hands on some more jersey. I just love the idea of making all sorts of soft, comfy, stretchy clothes myself, Especially with warm weather on the way soon; I can see some gaps in my summer wardrobe that need to be filled.

Today seemed like a good day to start this project (which will probably have to wait until after the weekend to be finished) because first, I'm at home today and have lots of time for it, and second, it has warmed up so much outside that there are rivers of water pouring down the outside of the building. I can hardly believe spring has finally arrived but it certainly has and it's not wasting time. Yesterday's piles of snow are today's slushy puddles. We are even supposed to get a bit of rain!

Happy Spring!