After my success with his Monkee’s shirt, my boyfriend asked if I could make him a stripy t-shirt.  He’s quite particular about his stripes and hasn’t been able to find any t-shirts he likes for a while.

I wasn’t sure about making something as classic as a t-shirt, but thought I’d give it a go.  I ordered some black and beige stripy knit fabric from Minerva Crafts and I was very pleased with the feel of it when it arrived.  The pattern I picked for this was actually a pyjama top pattern which looked like it would be simple to make (Simplicity 2116).

The cutting out took quite a while as I tried to make sure that the stripes matched on the folded fabric.  The stripe matching along the sides worked out well in the end – not perfect, but good enough.

The big problem I had was with the ribbed collar.  I used my overlocker for all the seams including the collar, and as I was sewing it felt like it was going in beautifully.  I’d never done this before, but I was following some advice I’d found online about stretching the ribbed fabric as I sewed it in, after lots of pinning to make sure it was evenly distributed around the neckline.  As I looked at the completed neck band, which was lying beautifully flat with no puckers, I realised that I’d sewn it in inside out! Bugger! I managed to keep calm and after unpicking it, which took ages with the overlocking, I sewed it in again the other way around.  Not quite as good as the first time, but good enough.

In the end, Jez was really pleased with it and has set me the task of finding some red and black fabric to make him a Dennis the Menace style t-shirt (or two).

Jx