It’s Thursday of Selfish Sewing Week, and I’ve finally gotten to make something for me! I spent the earlier part of the week sewing up a tote for my son’s teacher. Another mom organized a multitude of gifts for next week’s Teacher Appreciation Week, and I volunteered a bird themed tote since their class nickname is The Birdie Class. I dropped it off to the other mom this morning, so the rest of my day was all about a tee for me!

So these are some horrendous mirror selfies, but at least I cleaned the mirror first. And then I cleaned the bathroom some more. Gotta do it some time, and if not for blogging purposes, well…

I’ve got some pretty bad fitting tee shirts at this point in my life. Most are too boxy and short. I worked in retail about a decade ago, and my shirt supply hasn’t really run out from that. But my size has changed (for the better!) and pants styles have changed. I’m just not a fan of the visible crack when I sit or ride my bike. Not cool, Zeus.

This one is boxy and short, the neckline is kinda gapping. It’s my size, but it’s big all over and just outdated.

This one is longer, somewhat leaner cut, but really cheaply made. See how the side seam pulls around because it wasn’t cut well? Yeah, well it was like $5.

So, I need a perfect tee shirt pattern. One I can do anything with, and it will look flattering. I’m currently working through this really awesome pattern course by Lauren Dahl, Creating PDF Patterns: From Sketch to Sale (affiliate link). Ultimately, pattern designing for me, for when I design dance costumes, for sales is what I want to be doing. This course has been AMAZING so far! I’ve made a table of measurements, I’ve drafted my XS for this Perfect Tee pattern I want to create. Now I’m in the part of the course about grading. And it’s totally digital! I began my blocks on Adobe Illustrator, which I plan to return to once I update my Mac, but did the rest of the drafting on my ancient laptop in Inkscape. I’m seriously so excited about this.

But I was ready to make a shirt today, and I needed the next size up, and to add seam allowances, but I just did all that after printing what I had so far. I made a couple neckline edits. And I figured whatever happened, I’d either have a wearable muslin, or a decent learning experience! I think it turned out pretty well! There are some edits I may make. I added to the hem from the original block, and I think it feels a little long and needs to curve with the body and fall slightly higher on the sides. I like the neckline, and it’s not choking me. I feel really awesome about the sleeves. I mean, sleeves are scary just to sew, let alone draft!

It looks good from the back! That’s always a plus. Yay, you can see I have a waist!

It would be long enough to tuck in to a skirt or pants. On someone other than me, of course. Ugh, I have belt issues. Don’t worry, I don’t own that. I just inherited a bag of my mom’s 1980s belts on their way out of her closet. Demonstration purposes only, I think.

So, that’s that! Thursday, and project #1 is in the bag! I’ll be posting it over to the SSW project on Kollabora. I have one more project I hope to knock out fairly quickly. It’s a dress, and there are a few fiddly things, but overall it should be an easy and fun sew! I look forward to posting about it before Selfish Sewing Week is up!

As for my shirt pattern, I have plans to complete the grading and get some testing done for it from bodies other than mine. My lofty goal is perhaps doing it graded for a regular height of 5’5″, plus a petite and a tall version. Maybe. I’ll have to see how things go as I continue to figure out my way and what kind of feedback I get along the way.