A little palate cleanser

For some unknown reason, I’m writing this blog at some ungodly hour on a school night. Well, a work night, anyway, no school this week! But the urge to blog has not been strong of late so I’m going with it!

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have gathered that we have been away for the last week. We spent a very chilly week in a property in Wales, saw many lovely things including puffins and seals and incredible, empty beaches (did I mention it was cold?), but what I did not get to do was any proper sewing.

This resulted in my ordering a few things online (bad!) and also going through my apps detailing fabric and patterns and working up a to sew soon list.

So tonight, desperate for some quiet sewing time, I decided to tackle the French Navy “Stellan Tee”. This pattern is a free download and I have to say, I’m impressed.

The pattern is a slightly boxy, shorter T-shirt designed to be worn with your high waisted jeans or trousers. And I really like it!

I made this version up using some fabric I won from Stoff & Stil a while back. I hadn’t used most of the bundle they sent because they left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Basically, the competition offered 1.5m of each of 6 fabrics. When the parcel arrived and my overexcited children dived in, I assured them that I could make T-shirt’s for both of them from 1.5m. And then realised that they’d only sent 1m. When I raised this with them (extremely politely!) they basically said they’d sold out of the ones we particularly liked and that was that.

Anyway, it is lovely quality fabric and it was free, so worth combining with a free pattern.

I graded between a size S on the bust and an M on the hips and also made a small hollow chest adjustment. The pattern came together beautifully, with lovely, clear instructions.

I particularly liked the method of using an extra strip of fabric to bind the inside back neckline: it looks so professional! I’m a big fan of the curved hem too and the suggested technique of marking the hem with a row of stitching (something I’ve done on wovens not stretch garments before) worked really well.

The fit on the finished tee is, I think, pretty good. I think the neckband could have been ever so slightly longer in this fabric, and I struggled a little with the 1/4″ seam allowance as I’m used to 3/8″ on my overlocker.

I do think this top is slightly shorter than I prefer (but that is very clearly mentioned in the description) but that’s just my personal taste. I’m going to lengthen it by and inch or two and then crack on with some of the good jersey in the stash!

If you’re looking for a satisfying, easy make you could definitely do worse than this little top. The fact that I cut this from around 65cm of 150cm wide fabric is just the icing on the cake!

Becca x