I wanted to teach a basic tee shirt class this summer, and Jalie seemed the obvious choice. Their basic fitted tee pattern, 2805, has a few different cute necklines (even if none is the scoop neck I prefer), and I felt pretty confident that the sizing and drafting would be good. I’m not sure if this sweet floral is really “me,” but it makes for a beautiful sample.
Everything is taking me a really long time to make right now, but this was still a pretty simple, quick sew, aside from how spread out over days the process was. I often just wing my neckband pieces, but I used the Jalie pattern piece here and of course it’s perfect. Neckbands on V-necks need to be a bit more precise, IMO, so a good pattern piece is worth it here.
Speaking of V necks, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
The one thing I would change on the pattern is that the sleeve pattern piece is cut on the fold. I prefer a full sleeve piece, even if it’s symmetrical, so I can cut out the pair all at once (I feel the same way about collar and yoke pieces for shirts). But it’s easy to make that change at the tracing stage.
I did not raise the underarm on this version, as I often don’t need to in Jalie patterns, but I think I would lift it just slightly in the future. There’s a balance in underarm fitting between mobility and wrinkles, but I tend to lean to the mobility side, wrinkles be damned.
I did the twin needling on the Rocketeer, where I had to relearn the “always test!” lesson again… for only the millionth time. Ah well. After some unpicking and careful testing of stitch length (longer), presser foot pressure (light but not too light or the fabric doesn’t advance well), and tension, I finally got good results. And yes, I used Steam-a-Seam in the hems.
Now does the shirt fit me? Well, I made my current size, which is U grading to V at the waist and hips. And it’s good, or would be good if the bump weren’t bursting forth at a rate that makes me think of those supernatural movie pregnancies where the woman gives birth within the space of days.
But I can definitely do a maternity bump hack on the next one.
Happy sewing!
Tanit-Isis Sews 
Excellent V! And really, you can barely see the babies from the front, though they do like to make an appearance in profile 🙂
As I said there was major sucking in on that front pic! 😂
Beautiful bump you have there, you’re positively glowing x
Thank you! We’ll pretend it’s not just the filters! 😂
It’s a lovely print, if a little sparse for my tastes (and who asked YOU I think) but that v is well done. The kids, they are jockeying for position in there, so the bump will advance quicker. My mother of twins friends (yes, there’s a whole social world of MOT out there) would like to tell you a belly band is gonna be really critical in awhile. “Tell her I wanted to use duct tape”.
I 100% believe this! My previous bumps were, definitely present but moderate. This is going to be a whole new world. 😱