Cabi Gather Tee redux

I’ve had this diagonal zebra print cotton (blend I’m pretty sure) knit in my stash since we went to see family in San Diego last fall.  While I was immediately drawn to it with it’s intriguing blend of sea foam and grey, it’s lingered in my stash because I couldn’t figure out what pattern would do it justice.

Then last week I had a light bulb go off and it occurred to me that this fabric would make a great version of the Cabi Gather Tee I knocked off here.  The gathering and center panel would skew the print just enough to be interesting but not enough to ruin the effect of the original fabric.  I went back and looked more closely too at the original tee, and I noticed as I zoomed on Cabi’s website that the center panel, hems, and the binding are all flatlocked (don’t you love the zoom features on RTW sites?!).

I flatlocked the hems and the center panel, but I forgot to do the same to the binding, so I just stitched it in place with my double needle.  I definitely would recommend flatlocking on this tee because it helps the seams lay flat without any additional topstitching; the seams are less bulky because they are flat and also because you’re not bulking them up by adding extra thread when you topstitch.  As a bonus, since you don’t have to topstitch, flatlocking is faster as a construction technique.

The other thing that I did to change this tee from my first version is that I narrowed the center panel just slightly.  I thought that while the dimensions of my center panel were very close to Cabi’s tee, on my body, with my full bust, the center panel fell too far on the inside of my bust line to be the best look.  To change this, I measured the distance between the girls at my full bust line (essentially the bridge on my bra at the full bust line) and halved that number (since the panel is cut on the fold).  On me, that works out to 3/4″ from CF or 1 1/2″ total between the business.

On my pattern, I marked 3/4″ from CF at the full bust line (conveniently marked already since that’s part of the drafting) and used that point to determine the width of the rest of the panel.  I just kind of eyeballed what looked right, which ended up narrowing the top of the panel as well as the bottom just slightly.  I had to add the sliced off bits to the side panel which was a bit fussy but not impossible.  If you make this tee, learn from my mistakes and just measure between the girls the first time and you won’t have to go through fixing this.

I have changed the directions on my original post to reflect the changes too.

Also, I added a little ruching on the sleeve as I noticed that it was there when I went back and looked at the original tee.  To do this, I drew a line perpendicular to the hem 4″ long on the inside of each wrist on the right side of the fabric.  From the wrong side of the sleeve, I stretched a piece of clear elastic (from Pam Erny–don’t try to use clear elastic from JoAnn, you’ll cry) behind this line and stitched it into place with a 3-step zigzag while stretching it a lot.  This ended up being really easy to do and really makes for a special and unique sleeve.

All in time for me to enter this shirt in Patternreview’s RTW contest!  I love it when I’m just doing work that I would normally be doing anyway and it works out that I can enter a contest.  It feels like a lot less pressure than when I’m making a garment specifically for a contest.

My updated version of my review is here.

Almost teal skirt and a pattern test

I’ve had this printed sateen in my stash for a good long time.  It was in a little flat fold at Denver Fabrics and I passed it by a couple of times thinking I’d regret it if I didn’t pick it up.  It just screamed at me (hello it’s a teal-ish [not quite as dark] print in a natural fiber) that it wanted to be a skirt.  Does fabric talk to you like that?

Fast forward a couple of years, and I picked up Ottobre 5-2007-9 in one of my daydreaming sessions looking through my magazine stash.  It’s a basic A-line skirt with some fun patch pockets in front, denim style pockets in back, a hip yoke, and belt loops.  I always appreciate Ottobre for their good drafting and excellent basics.  Sometimes I get bogged down trying to add too many details.  It’s refreshing to do something simple once in a while

I cut a straight 34, but it is definitely big.  I could have and probably should have taken the side seams in a little bit.  I’m okay with it–it just sits a little lower on my hips than normal, but that’s fine by me.  It’s so cool to wear which is a blessed relief when we’ve had a couple of days already in the 80s.

The top is my trial for Maria’s kimono sleeve tee that that I think she will be offering on her website as a download soon.  I was lucky enough to get to pretest it.  It came together quickly (50 minutes which included fitting the side seams!), and I love the effortless style of it.  Also, it’s very cool.  My 3/4 length sleeved tops are not going to get as much use I fear if this heat keeps up.  As I am not particularly crazy about sleeveless tops, this sleeve is a great alternative.  Ladylike, comfortable, fitted enough, yet relaxed.  And it takes hardly any fabric at all.  I used this remnant of cotton/poly/spandex that I pulled from the $2/lb. table at Denver Fabrics that had this weird bias chunk ruthlessly hacked off of it.  I always love heathered grey jersey, so I pick it up when I find it.  I had planned to use it for the kids, not really evaluating the spandex amount (a rather girly fiber I think).  I was thrilled that I had enough to make this top.

My full review of the skirt is here.

Also, my kids are hilarious:

This boy loves his dirt.

I look down from cooking dinner yesterday to find #1 having wearing this getup.  I laughed hard and long.  Is waxed paper as effective as foil in stopping alien mind control I wonder?

The T-shirt Project April

The nice thing about starting a sew along at the end of the month is that I have all month to procrastinate think carefully about the next top.

I think I’m going to try to replicate this Boden top.  I love Boden’s fun details and fantastic prints that they use.  They are definitely a frequently visited site for me as I Pinterest.  I love how this top could be appropriate for a backyard BBQ or a girls’ night out.  It’s casually elegant and totally fits in with my tiny costumed dauchsund, beautiful bread, wine, soup greens, and a Vespa image.

This top shouldn’t be too difficult to recreate.  It’s a crossover neckline with an added twist of fabric that looks separate and sewn and ruched into the side seams.  I might have to fuss around with the length of the twist so that it pulls without being tight but also not sagging.

I’m going to start with Jalie 2804 as a base.  I think I will lower the empire line so that it will be 100% covered by the twist and also to make room for my full bust (I’ll have to add length also right under the apex).  I’ll be comparing this to my TNT even though I’ve made this top before because I made it when I was rather pregnant with Sam, and I’m considerably smaller now.  I do like that there’s the ruched sleeve detail on this pattern too–a fun detail when I’ve been contemplating summer.

So what has everyone else been making?  What’s your status on the project?

Striped piped skirt

For all the headache that were my last pants, this was a fun skirt.  It is Burdastyle 5-2010-130.  It’s actually the illustrated course pattern in that particular issue.  There’s nothing difficult about how it’s put together, and I didn’t use the instructions, but they’re there, which is reassuring if you’re a beginner or haven’t sewn with Burda before.  The big advantage of the illustrated course pattern is that it’s shaded in pink on the pattern sheet, which makes it much easier to navigate the subway map that are the tracing sheets.

I wish I had made this more of a straight skirt than the pencil that it is.  I like straight skirts, but pencils are a little too movement restrictive to me, which is not terribly helpful at this stage in my life.  That being said, this one is tremendously comfortable (maybe it’s the stretch cotton), and I moved around it fine (though probably more lady-like than normal) whilst running after the kids.

I added some bias piping on the pockets.  The pockets are wonderful by themselves, but the piping really makes them stand out.  Plus, it gave me a reason to use my piping foot, and I love that thing.

I also really like the denim details.  I’ve never done a fly on a skirt, but I like it, and after all the pants I’ve made recently, I’ve become fast at making them, and I kind of like them.  And they give you a chance to use vintage cotton for fly shields because that’s more fun than matching fly shields.

And you can never have enough belt loops.  They give you reasons to pull out pretty vintage silk scarves to use as belts.  To keep in the denim realm, I used a tack button instead of a normal button.  Tack buttons let you whack them into place instead of hand sewing.  Hammers+buttons-hand sewing= good things.

The welt pockets aren’t perfect, but they’re not hideously ugly either.  One is better than the other.  I’m glad I chose to make the welts on the bias.  Playing with stripes is endlessly entertaining.

The only thing I’m really not crazy about are the pleats.  In a perfect world, they’re these cute little divots that hang off the bottom of the pocket.  Look how sweet they look in the line drawing.  

In the real world, they poof out quite strangely.  At first I was put off by them and was pretty disappointed with this skirt, so I set it aside for a couple of days.  Then I wore it about on one of our recent warmer days and decided that they don’t look all that weird, and this skirt is crazy comfortable.  I guess I like it poofy.

So readers, have you come back to a project that you thought you weren’t crazy about later, only to realize that you not only changed your mind but that you really love it?

My full review is here.

Sewing without your right arm

It’s quite seldom that I do not use my serger for at least part of any given garment.  But when it started feeling “clunky” last week, I decided it was time to get it serviced (it’s been I think 3 years).  But I only had a pair of knit pants to make (ponte pants–my last item for the Wardrobe Basics Sew along, specifically), and theoretically, you don’t need a serger to make knits.  I say theoretically because I didn’t realize how crazy dependent I am on my serger.  Good sewing went out the window.

My inspiration pants were the City Knit Luxe pants from NY and Company that I tried on at the beginning of the challenge whilst on a little snoop shopping expedition with my sweet friend Lisa.

I started well enough with Burdastyle 12-2009-104–a skinny stretch woven pant with faux front pockets, and 2 piece front.  I took out a little more than usual in my flat seat adjustment and added a little more in scooping out the front crotch to account for the additional stretch in my fabric (a nicely draping rayon poly lycra doubleknit from Denver Fabrics).  I cut 1″ off the top to make it more low-rise, as low-rise is normal rise for me.  It decidedly being Spring, and it being far too warm to wear jeans tucked into boots, I also decided to add some flare from the knee down.  But this sewing trip was not all a trip through the roses.

Exhibit A:

Ack!  This is the ugliest waistband ever.  I think I thought that I’d serge it as one piece, except that I didn’t have my serger.  Ick.  It’s all wrinkled and such because I tried to do Lori’s tutorial for adding hidden elastic in the waistband.  Don’t go on my mistakes here–it really is a good tutorial.  I think a couple of things happened:

1.  My elastic should have been longer so that there wouldn’t be so much disparity in circumference in each part of the waistband.

2.  If I had thought about it, I might have tried to stitch the elastic to the seam allowance in the waistband.  I ran out of matching thread in my bobbin, so I’m not fond of the 3 part zigzag on the inside.

3.  My topstitching on the waistband went seriously awry.  I say mysteriously because it looks perfectly fine on the two part seam on the body of the fronts as well as the faux pockets.

I do really like that this method helps keeps the pants from doing the knit pant creep down towards the knees that happens over the course of the day.  Though, they still are a little saggy in back after a day’s wearing.

Exhibit B:

I put on the pants to do a final check of the fit, only to discover that they were mysteriously breezy.  Breezy because there was a big hole I slashed at the bottom of the fly.  A little extra bartacking fixed it, but it’s not exactly pretty.

Exhibit C:

Where are the pockets?  I feel a bit exposed in these pants, so I reckon I’ll be wearing them with longer tops.  A quick patch pocket could have fixed that.  I’d retrofit these with some patch pockets, but my layout was too tight and left me with very little extra, and certainly nothing wide enough for a pocket, and there’s the problem of topstitching on this fabric again…

From the fly down, I’m okay with these pants.  The great thing about messing up a waistband is that you can cover that.  They are extremely comfortable.  Actually, they are more comfortable than sweatpants because they fit my body while allowing the freedom of movement that make us all love knits in the first place.  As a bonus, they look more like slacks, which is what I wanted over a yoga type pant which I probably wouldn’t wear out of the house.  I also really like the 2 piece front…it’s a fun design element and it’s flattering.  All this said, the next time I attempt a pair of knit pants, I will wait until my serger is back in her proper place.

As for you readers, do you have any salvageable mess ups that you’ve made?

My full review is here.

Once upon a time

there was a girl who bought a sewing machine.  She never thought that she would be sewing clothes.  Ever.  Then she tried, failed, tried again, and kept on going.  Then she started sewing knits and wondered if she needed a serger. She didn’t like the way that her beloved sewing machine made her knits look kind of homemadeish and heard that a serger could do a better job.  So she test drove a serger and took it home.  It took some time to get used to, but her serger became a valuable friend.  Then her serger had to go into the shop and get cleaned, and that’s where we find our fearless heroine now.

And since the serger has been in the shop, I’ve managed to make a half wadder/half success pair of pants (more on that tomorrow), batch trace and cut a whole table’s worth of patterns, [what's up with the wrench?] muslin a vest (I need to alter it, but I rarely alter muslins the same day I make them), do a lot of Burda daydreaming, and begin the long task of organizing the stash .  Oh, and I’m working on dyeing/bleaching what was before this afternoon an unnaturally bright length of coral twill.

But really all I want to do is sew, and I’m going positively bonkers without my serger.  I had no idea how much I used it until it was gone.  I go between both my machines so much that starting a project without it being there is like missing my right arm.  I get to pick it up tomorrow though, and I reckon the two of us will be burning rubber to make up for a week and a half of missed time.

Lori had a poll up a while back on what you do when you can’t sew.  The majority of people voted that they read their favorite sewing blogs.  Me, I’m mostly a dreamer/planner.  How about you?  What do you do when for whatever reason you can’t sew as much as your usual?

Heather is the new pastel

My good friend Vanessa is dotty over orange.  The way I love aqua, she loves orange.  I’ve been content to let her own that color for a good many years, but what with the pretty corals I keep coming across and the fact that coral is pretty much opposite aqua on the color wheel, I’ve been attempting to branch out from my #1 favorite color.

Enter this pretty peachy pink heathered poly cotton rayon knit from Harts Fabric.  I bought it with some Christmas money and it’s been ageing in my stash as I’ve pondered how to do it justice.

Burdastyle 12/2009 has proved to be one of the better issues of Burda in my stash.  While working on my motorcycle jacket, I kept coming to this pattern–a basic henley.

I love that it uses snaps instead of buttons, and I like the easy go with everything feel it has.  I knew I had found my pattern for this pretty fabric.  But I was less enchanted with the smallest size being a 36. I’ve made my peace with grading, but for such a basic top, I figured it really wasn’t worth my time to do so.  So out came my TNT.

I traced the shoulder, armscye, neckline and a couple of inches below the armscye without cutting out anything yet on my tracing paper.  I also quickly transferred the seamlines since Burda does not use them (and can I say how much easier that is than dealing with those monstrous 5/8″ things on Big 4 patterns?!) I superimposed that over the Burda tracing sheet and copied the neckline, and grabbed the CF placket, and boom.  A complete graded pattern in 5 minutes.  When it came to cutting out, I then just overlayed the tracing onto my TNT front, secured with pattern weights and cut away.

The top came together in 100 minutes (I’m timing myself for t-shirts now just for your benefit, readers).  It typically takes me about 90 to sew up a t-shirt, but it took a little longer to hammer the snaps in.  I wished I had added 1/4″ extra along the side seams.  Because my TNT is based on a rayon lycra with a little more stretch than this fabric, it’s perhaps a bit more snug than it would otherwise be.  I’ll give myself a little grace for that because this is the first time that I’ve used something other than rayon/lycra with my TNT.

But mostly, I love this color.  Pure versions of colors can often wash out my fair skin.  My solution  to this has always been to gravitate towards pastels, but I often think that pastels can be ageing and dated.  Thankfully, there have been a lot of heathered knits and chambrays that I’ve come across lately that do the same work of a pastel (mixing in white with a more pure color) but with a fresher, more textured, less Easter-egg look.

ETA: For more info on snaps (and because Julie asked):

I got lucky and was given some vintage pearl snaps from a lady who was cleaning out her stash a while ago.  They’re called Ginger Snaps, and they’re definitely better than the Dritz snaps…I’ve had 100% success with them and it’s about 50/50 with the Dritz snaps.  The nice thing about them is that they are colored on the side that fits into the pearl prong, so you can’t mess it up.  There is an excellent tutorial on pearl snaps here:

Pearl Prong Western Snaps tutorial 

I didn’t interface my placket either because I find that it can sometimes can outweigh the fashion fabric and then I have gaping issues.  The two layers of fabric really are enough, but if your fabric feels unstable or like it needs some beef, by all means, interface it.

Etsy is an excellent resource for pearl snaps, and really a lot of different notions.  I’m finding that the more I use Dritz products and the more I use non-Dritz products, the less I like the Dritz…I have a lot fewer headaches with them for whatever reason–and I don’t even use a snap setter–just an old wooden spool, a fabric pad under the snap to protect it, and a mallet.  There’s a store here that sells pearl snaps: Cowgirl Snaps

You can also find Ginger Snaps on Ebay and Etsy: Green Ginger Snaps, Orange Ginger Snaps, Spiffy Red/White/Blue Ginger Snaps

Snap Source also sells good quality snaps and setting tools.  Their setters are the ones that Sandra Betzina uses.  I keep meaning to get some every time I’m at Denver Fabrics…

How do you break out of color ruts that you find yourself in?

My full review of the top is here.

For you T-shirt Project followers, this is an unofficial entry.  I’ll take another look at the henley at some point in the course of the project because it’s kind of an interesting shirt. Also, I love this one so much I’m so in for making another one.  You’ll still find it in the Flickr page for the project.  You can now click up at the top of the page to a special page just for the project, listing participants and a few other links.  Enjoy!

The T-Shirt Project: The search for your perfect TNT, part 2–Perfecting your pattern

Sorry, a lot of text today and not many pictures as I tend not to take many pictures while I’m fitting.

To review, a TNT=tried and tested pattern.  Having a TNT in your pattern stash will allow you to quickly assess if other patterns will fit you as well as giving you a base to add any number of changes.

So you picked a pattern, how do you go about making it work for you?  I’ll start with universal strategies and move on to different avenues that will get you to the same result (as we all learn differently).

Things that will help you perfect the fit of your t-shirt:

• A critical eye:  In assessing fit, whether you tissue fit, progressively learn from projects, or muslin, you need to be able to take an honest look at the mirror and assess what is in front of you.  It will take perhaps a lot of failure.  It’s just part of the process.  I’ve wiped away many frustrated tears trying to figure out fit.  Figuring it out is worth every drop of pain it takes to get there.  The alternative is to keep on feeling bad about yourself every time you go into a changing room, hoping that RTW will finally fit–but we all know that far more often than not RTW will not fit well.
• A mirror, possibly two or three:       In my sewing room, I have a long mirror and a vanity mirror that came with our bedroom set that we’ve never used behind it.  Between the two mirrors, it’s easy for me to see every angle of a given garment.  Sometimes I have to move my long mirror, but it’s lightweight and easy to do that.  You don’t want to be twisting at all to see various things because whatever garment you’re wearing isn’t twisting in real life as it hangs from your body.  You will want to assess it as it is, and a couple of mirrors will make that simple.  Here’s a tutorial on making your own 3-way mirror.  You could even simplify this by starting with 3 mirrors with wooden frames and just grab some hinges and the appropriate screws from Home Depot (shouldn’t more sewing projects start there?!).
• A friend (optional, but possibly extremely helpful):  Friends aren’t always helpful when assessing fit.  For when they’re not, I can’t more highly recommend Peggy Sagers’                      Fitting Yourself By Yourself.  There’s lots of really helpful advice in it and she really clearly shows you how to drape a garment (as she does on most of her webcasts and in person too).  But let’s not dismiss the idea of using a friend to help you fit–she just needs to know what to look for.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have a group of ladies to do just that.  We all joined together to keep working on our pants after a class we took last year.  The teacher took on what I think was too many students that day.  In her inability to give us the individual time I think we needed, I think she just kind of applied a formula across the boards even though we were all clearly differently shaped (hello, I was like 7 months pregnant!).  We meet once a month and bring garments that we’re working on in whatever stage they might be in.  One of the ladies has taken a lot of Palmer/Pletsch classes and is on her way to being certified, so she’s rather knowledgeable about fit.  Although I have had little success with P/P, it’s still great to have people to bounce ideas off of.  Just sitting and talking about fit with all of these ladies has really helped me codify what I look for when I’m fitting myself.

As for specific ways to go about fitting and transferring those changes to your pattern, you have some options:

• Tissue fitting:  Palmer/Pletsch is all about tissue fitting.  I know a lot of people have success with this, and I can see the time-saving benefits it can afford.  There’s a great video from Marcy Tilton fitting a t-shirt.  Part 2 is here.
• Progressive project learning:  Call this an extension of the “wearable” muslin.  To an extent we all do this, but basically, in this way, you can just make up projects as you would normally and check out what you like and don’t like and change those things for the next time you make a project.  Michelle of Cheap and Picky did this with rather comprehensively with pants a while back and if you go back through all of her pants posts, you can see how things progress.  This can easily be applied to t-shirts.
• Muslin/draping:  This is my chosen method.  Basically, you just make up a garment in an inexpensive version of whatever you will use and do all of your changes on that and then transfer those to your pattern.  The benefit of this is that you’re assessing fabric that is going to behave similarly to your fashion fabric.  If you work out taking the wrinkles out of your muslin, you won’t have to worry about getting them out of your actual garment.  It seems costly to do make something up in trial fabric, but if you’re shooting for a TNT, you will only have to do this once or twice, and once you’ve perfected the fit on your muslin, you won’t need to do this again.  Also, consider that you can make a muslin in leftover fabric.  Peggy Sagers again describes this method really well in Fitting Yourself By Yourself.  At one point she did do a webcast on the same topic, but it looks like it’s not available on the replays.  For specific t-shirt fitting, there’s also these webcasts from Peggy Sagers.  T-shirts and French Darts, Fit Those Knits, and for help on sewing with knits in general Sew Knits with Ease.  Peggy’s construction advice is golden.  Golden.

Printed resources to help you fit your t-shirt and transfer changes to your pattern:

• Fit for Real People by Pati Palmer and Marta Alto–                                                                                the Palmer/Pletsch guide to any kind of fitting question you could have.  It will walk you through tissue fitting and help you learn to assess garments.
• Fast Fit by Sandra Betzina–  I love this woman.  She gives you a lot of options for fitting any given area of your body, and her steps are clear and comprehensive.
• The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting by Sarah Veblen–                                                         an excellent resource for draping with some other thoughts that you see in Fit for Real People and Fast Fit.  She talks about a horizontal balance line in it, which is a really valuable concept.  Lori interviewed Sarah on Sew Forth Now about the book here and here.  In the first podcast, she explains the balance line.  Do yourself a favor and listen to the podcast.
• Fitting and Pattern Alteration by Judith Rasband et al.                                                                         This is the seam method of pattern alteration.  The idea is that you alter patterns where the problems are occurring rather than make a lot of changes that either cancel themselves out or cause problems elsewhere.  I’ve had some success with this method and I certainly like the concept behind it.  There’s a couple of earlier editions of the book, but the other ones only show you how to use the method on very basic styles, so it may not be obvious how to apply it to anything beyond a basic darted blouse.  The edition I linked is pricey, but also extremely thorough in the styles it shows you how to alter.

Hopefully that will get you started with fitting a t-shirt pattern.  As always, Patternreview is a wonderful community and resource when you’re in the middle of a project and are just plain stuck.  I keep contributing to their site because it’s been so valuable to me.  Browse around there if you never have, and I promise you will learn something.

The T-Shirt Project: The search for your perfect TNT, part 1–choosing the pattern

 

TNT–wha?  TNT= a tried and tested pattern.  It should fit great, be adaptable (i.e. something with a lot of detail work is probably not going to be a standard), and something that you can compare other patterns to easily.

The path to getting a pattern that fits such criteria is not always sunshine and rainbows though.  My fitting friend Linda has invested something like 200 man hours trying to get a Butterick pattern to work perfectly, only to discover that a Silhouette Patterns t-shirt fit her better right out of the envelope. I mean, yay, but I wish for her sake that she didn’t have to go through all of that.

Persevere dear readers, though.  With a little (or a lot) of patience, and a critical eye, you can find your perfect pattern that will set you on the road of designing your own t-shirts in no time.

So what can you be looking for?

• Multiple sizes:  Very few of us are one size uniformly from top to bottom, and picking a multi-sized pattern will help you make much more accurate transitions from one area to another.  In addition to this, knits have different amounts of stretch, so sometimes you will need a larger or smaller size to compensate for the difference.
• Consider the v-neck:  My choice for a TNT is a v-neck.  Not only is it universally flattering neckline, I think it’s easier when you’re manipulating it to add height to CF vs. taking it away.  For me, this makes the v the perfect base for future pattern changes.
• Sleeve choices:  A plain sleeve that fits well will serve you well.  If you have a pattern with two or three choices of lengths, even better–less work for later.  Why would you pick a plain sleeve over gathered sleeve?  Well, you can always add fluff, but it’s more complicated to take it away.  If you really love a gathered sleeve, by all means, use that as your base sleeve.
• Detective work:  Be on the lookout for hidden style lines.  Sometimes the details of a pattern can cover up good basic bones that can be helpful to you in finding a good basic pattern.  I stumbled upon Jalie 2921 because I really liked the look of the scarf collar.  After making a few versions of it and getting tired of such a specific look, it occurred to me that the collar is just a big ole binding and the front piece yields a v-neck without the collar.  Jalie 2921 with no collar:  and with the collar: For a non-t-shirt example, Vogue 1027 is really an empire waisted dress, but the ties cleverly hide that seam:You would think I would remember to pull this pattern out when doing anything with an empire line to compare where that silly line is cutting me horizontally since it fits perfect on this pattern…but I digress.
• If all else fails, draft your own:  There are lots of good resources for drafting t-shirts.  Design-It-Yourself Clothes by Cal Patch walks you through drafting a basic tee (though Katie has pointed out that the directions yield a front and back that are the same–which is fine perhaps if you’re totally flat…).   There’s a series of YouTube videos by a fashion designer turned teacher starting with this one.  He writes about drafting here.  I haven’t looked through this thoroughly, but it looks to be good information that’s worth checking out.

Part 2, Perfecting your pattern is forthcoming!