Simplicity 1805--A T-Shirt for Me Shirt

Simplicity 1805

Stretch knit shirts, variations

I made view B, but with the sleeves of view C, since I wanted a shorter sleeve look.

I used this great thin knit that I’d picked up on some insane clearance at Hancock Fabrics (I think), and bought out the rest of the bolt, which wasn’t much, I had 1 1/2 yards of 56” wide fabric to work with.  And I ended up with some leftover.

Previous reviewers mention that this pattern runs large, that must be why they put such sizes like XS and XXS in this envelope.  So I cut an XS for the top’s neck and sleeves, and switched to S at the “waistline” marking.  

Back view

I like that the sleeves are attached to the shirt front and back, because I really didn’t want to have to fight with the gathers again so soon after my last shirt project.  I didn’t like the neck band instructions.  My oh my I had to fight with stretching that collar!  At this point I am not at all sure I followed the instructions on this, but I did manage to get it on.  I stitched the raw edges together (which was the hardest part) on the inside of the shirt, but then pressed the neck band up and over to encase the raw edges and topstitched the finished edge to the shirt outside.  (Confused yet? I’m not great at conveying this!)  This was so that the weight of the layers would fall forward on the neck line and not turn or twist inward—an occurrence that causes me some irritation for sure.  I also skipped the interfacing step for the neckband, after reading other reviewers experience with this, I found it was not worthwhile to interface anything.

The only other change I made was to put the elastic on the side seams last.   I wasn’t sure if I’d want it, and honestly, the shirt looked fine without it, but I slept on the idea, and decided to go ahead.  But, instead of sewing the elastic directly onto the shirt at the side seams, I decided my thread would show through too much, and not wanting that, I sewed the elastic to the front facing side of the French side seams instead.  It seems to have worked OK, and the gathering effect is there.  

I did like the few pattern pieces, the simple instructions, and it is a pretty quick sew.  Just watch out for that danged neck piece that requires a crazy amount of stretching to fit.  I might sew it again, not sure, for some reason printed knits (in my price range, especially) are hard to find around here.  I like the look of view F, with the open shoulders, but would like a wider set neckline with that….we’ll see.