A pretty shirt for James

At this time of year James always wears the same long sleeve t-shirt, which, 10 years on, is faded, stained, mishapen and has several rat-holes in.

So last Saturday an excited James came with me one of our local fabric stores to choose the fabric for his new longsleeve t-shirt. The result was that source of argument between husbands and wives everywhere - a shirt that he thinks is blue and I think is green (AND it was being sold in the green aisle of the shop!). Anyway, the fabric seemed to be quite nice quality interlock, although I was less sure after washing it, when it wouldn't lie flat to be cut out! It is quite stretchy but does not have great recovery. I stitched it very carefully, making sure not to stretch it. The result seems OK at present. Time will tell how well it wears.



I made this shirt from KS 2561 and I cut a medium size, which, the pattern stated would have a chest width 2 inches less than the jumpers I stitched recently for James. This would be OK I thought. I also checked against his old longsleeve tshirt and it seemed close enough.

I added 2 inches to the sleeves but then took a bit off the cuffs because James didn't want so much cuff. I also tried to correct for the fact that James' shirts always appear higher at the back than front by adding an inch to the back. Seemed to work OK. I didn't change the pattern any other way (except to mak ethe base 1 inch narrower than the chest), so I guess this shirt would be rather long on more average sized people. The collar is perhaps slightly wide on the finished article but everything else is OK. I was impressed that I managed to get the collar and cuffs to work - this was my first time with the quarter and stretch routine and I was a bit nervous, especially since I used self fabric rather than ribbing for the cuffs/collar.

I used a size 11 stretch needle and thestraight(ish) stretch stitch. Didn't finish the edges because this sort of fabric isn't supposed to need finishing.

Review