Past Clarey was an organised little bunny and saved a blog post for during her NYC trip - you know, just in case the constant overload of pics on Instagram and Twitter is NOT enough.
While planning what I wanted to make for my trip here, I was perusing the latest collections for S/S 14. One of my favourites, as always, is the collection from Whistles; metallics, pink feathery prints, pastels and structured t-shirts? SIGN ME UP! I have been on the lookout for fabrics that I can use to make similar pieces for the Spring.
On a recent #Spoolettes meet-up in my manor (South East London) I found some awesome white textured knit. This is from Sakhi fabrics in Lewisham and set me back a mere £6 p/m. The knit has a small textured diamond pattern and I knew it would be perfect for a structured t-shirt that I could wear with jeans or skinny trousers.
For the pattern I used Megan Nielsen's Briar but I cut the hem straight and also went up a size. I've used this pattern a couple of times before to make a short and long-sleeved top and was confident that a size-increase would give me the slightly oversized/structured look that I was after. The only change I made was to raise the neckline and lengthen the sleeves.
I really like the Briar as a basic t-shirt pattern. It sews up extremely quickly, the fit is great and it's easy to adapt into a different style of your choice. It's definitely my go-to t-shirt pattern.
I put this together quickly with my overlocker and cut the neckband as normal. I wondered if I would have to cut the neckband shorter as I had raised the neckline, but it seemed to fit nicely. In future, I might try a shorter neckband to see if I like it a little more taut.
To hem, I overlocked the raw edges on both the waist hem and the sleeves, turned up the hem allowance and then stitched using a slight zig zag stitch.
Here's a picture of the neckband close up so that you can see the texture of this knit. I have more of this left over so I think I might try and dye it a pastel pink color. Stay tuned to see if that's a disaster or a success!
I wore this top with my normal skinny jeans and pink docs (underneath my new bomber jacket of course!) to brunch in New York on Saturday. I was fortunate enough to be invited to brunch at Devra's apartment on Saturday and I had such a wonderful time meeting new and familiar faces from the US sewing community. It was such a great day that it deserves its own blog post, so stay tuned for that when I return to England.
In the meantime, I hope you like my stab at a structured t-shirt. Have you sewn with any unusual knit fabric lately and what styles/outfits have you spotted in shops/magazines that you'd like to recreate with your sewing skills?