Tyoshirt
Tyo wriggles into the shirt. “Aww, yeah. I love the long sleeves! Ooh, can we put a thumbhole in? I love how long it is—it covers my butt! I love how tight the sleeves are, you never get sleeves this tight. I love how you flare them out at the end, too! I’ll totally wear this! I love the neckline!” (I heave a small sigh of relief. I was worried it would be too low-cut for her taste.)
“Ok, now give it back to me so I can hem it.”
“No, don’t hem it, I like it just how it is!”
“I want one, too, mom!” (that’s Syo)
I made this shirt for Tyo to wear under her Babydoll costume. She’s going to be freakin’ freezing. Monday’s forecast includes snow.
The fabric is from a cotton jersey sheet I picked up at Value Village for $4; not great recovery—more T-shirt than leotard—but no way I was going to score plain white (or plain flesh-tone) jersey from Fabricland for that little, and there’s plenty left over. Like, I used less than two feet off the whole double-sized sheet length. (And it would’ve been less except the sheet seems to be cut prodigiously off-grain to the rib of the knit. Weird.)
The pattern… erm. Technically, it’s a hybrid of Kwik Sew 2448 (sleeve and armscye, size 7) and 1670 (body and shoulder, size 12, lengthened into a shirt), although really once I was done I think either pattern would’ve been embarrassed to acknowledge its bastard offspring. But, I’m pretty happy with the result—a close-fitting, shaped, but not skin-tight tee. I lengthened the sleeve, made it curve in a bit just below the top of the arm for a closer fit, and added my usual flare-out at the wrist. Something about this shape that I just really like. I had graded out the bottom of the shirt to allow for pear-shaped-ness, but next time I’ll tweak the side-seam curves a bit. They are inning and outing a bit too sharply. Tyo’s curves at the moment are all front to back, not side to side.
V-Neck Closeup
I wanted a V-neck to go underneath the costume. It’s my first attempt at finishing a V-neck; I didn’t try to miter the ends of the band, just overlapped them at a right angle. And by some miracle I got the length right, too. So although it’s a little wonky in places, overall it’s pretty decent. I used this technique from Jorth (I’ve seen it other places, too, but this description is nice and recent and sticks out in my memory) although I only did a 5mm seam allowance instead of a 10mm, and my topstitching is consequently closer to the seam.
One Happy Tyo
Of course, for the costume purposes, skin-tight would’ve been better. But y’know what? She loves it. So I’m going to shut up and enjoy. 🙂
(Also, Tyo wants you to know that she wanted to wear the knee-high boots but we could only find the one, so after an hour or so of hunting around she settled for mis-matched boots. I told her she should keep that to herself, this way it’s a “fashion statement”.)
Tanit-Isis Sews 
1. Tyo looks fashion-forward-awesome in that outfit!
2. Holy crap they grow up so fast!
1) agreed!
2) I KNOW! 😛
Yay – comments like that from your kids make it all worthwhile!
With such a cool attitude Tyo could wear anything and make it work, mismatched boots and all!
It’s all about the attitude, isn’t it? There’s sure plenty of attitude around here…
Looks great, and boy does she rock those boots!
Thanks! And thanks for your mini-tutorial on that neck-band technique! 🙂
Yeah, I think it would be hard not to be hooked by that appreciation! Maybe we should talk to ourselves like that after we finish a project/
That might not be a bad idea… 🙂 It sure keeps the mojo flowing…
Your Tyo is Just. Too. Cool.
I’m not jealous of someone less than half my age. At all…
I know! That kid has more cool in her little finger than I have in my whole body…
She’s such a cool kid! Love the top and she totally rocks it!
See above ;). There is definitely some rocking going on, I agree.
Well, sounds like the rewards are pretty high, so hard not to be hooked…. and even though flattery WILL get you everywhere, this top does really suit her!
Yeah, it’s pretty much right up her alley, I’d say. And they are both very good at applying flattery… 😉
Thats Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ,,,,!!,,!!!!! Lol
Great daughter and great shirt. Although tighter might be better costume wise, she’ll wear this more often which will appease the crappy-costume-sewing-for-single-use issue. I find white shirts hard to wear. They end up too sheer or too tight, the concept is awesome and I never end up wearing them. But that shirt really will get a lot of wear.
We’ll see how the show-through goes… the fabric is a tad sheer. But she wears a lot of vests, too, so I imagine it’ll get use either way.
that’s one hell of a fashion statement! And it works!! I loved it! Wearing the two different but matching in blackness and “type” of shoes looks great. I wish I had those shoes cuz I’d wear it.
I’ll be keeping my eye out for those types of shoes for my daughter – cuz maybe it only works with the kids. 🙂
Glad she loves the shirt!
Tyo has a thing for Converse-style high-tops and stalks Value Village for them constantly. These are only two of her several pairs. And yeah, she wore them for the rest of the evening (it was the school Hallowe’en dance that night) and the only thing she complained of was that the knee-high one (which is less broken-in, for the obvious reason that it takes her half an hour to put them on) was rubbing a bit by the end of the night.
She’s a cool little thing, isn’t she? Love the outfit with the mismatched shoes, striped leggins and hat. The top fits her well!
Thank you! I can take credit for the shirt but none of the rest of the styling—she does funky very well.
Could you put a zipper in the back of the knee-highs for her? That way she’d get more wear out of them. They’re just canvas, right? Because an exposed metal zipper would be awesome. 😉
Nice compliments on your shirt that you made–it’s hard to refuse to make them stuff when they are so appreciative, isn’t it? 🙂
Oof! A zipper in the knee-highs would be a great idea… but I’d be way too scared of messing it up.
Nothing beats an appreciative kid…
totally thought that was a choice. tyo looks amazing! little supermodel! if syo gives you the same response, how could you not sew another…
I know, hey? They are so sneaky! 🙂
What a wonderful bonus-result (that Tyo loves her new tee)!
And “…once I was done I think either pattern would’ve been embarrassed to acknowledge its bastard offspring” priceless ! That had me giggling to myself LOL!
LMAO… thank you! It was one of those “well, let’s do this and this and this… and I’m sure it’ll all work out!”
Just wanna say you are way more productive than me AND you have a family to take care of. I am in awe!
Also, Tyo knows how to work it!
Aww, thanks. Well, a lot of this week has been enforced productivity… nothing like a deadline…
You did a great job on that vneck. And what a preteen she is!?! 🙂
Thanks! It’s not perfect, but I think I’m getting better. I can’t seem to avoid a teeny bit of bubbling right at the point…
And, yes. Preteen. That would be the word. *headdesk*
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I’d love a top like that! Awesome job.
I’ve bought jersey sheets to use for sewing too, and noticed that they were never ‘on grain’. So far, it hasn’t mattered much, but for something with larger pieces like this top (or at least, in my size the pieces would be larger), I guess it would be important to make sure it’s on grain. Do you have any tips on how to do that?
I think if it’s off “grain” you run the risk of arm seams and side-seams twisting and trying to spiral around you. For a jersey, you want your fold (or your grain-lines) to align to the little knitted “ribs”—-it can even be worth hand-basting along a single rib with a contrasting thread so you have an easy visual marker.
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