Over the last couple of years I have practiced making t-shirts. Sometimes I wish I was more adventurous with my sewing, more often, but I’ve realised I enjoy the satisfaction and speed of making a really good basics. So, when Polina asked me if I wanted to use her lovely sustainable fabrics in a t-shirt collaboration, I couldn’t refuse! Good Fabric have lots of excellent and carefully chosen cotton and tencel jersey fabrics to chose from, suitable for all sorts of t-shirt patterns and styles.
When planning a t-shirt make, my first tip is to consider the fabric carefully as it will have a huge impact on your final make. Quality is important to me, but also, the term jersey covers a wide range of fabric textures that can vary considerably. Think about whether you want your garment to be drapey or with structure, stretchy or fairly stable.
Basic Instinct t-shirt in white organic cotton jersey
The Basic instinct tshirt is my favourite and go-to t-shirt sewing pattern. It has a relaxed cut and is great for beginners as Sasha’s instructions are so clear, including many notches for stripe matching and inserting the neckband easily. It has 7cm of positive ease over the bust. This means that although you need stretch in your dressmaking fabric, to get it over your head for example, it is not stretch to fit. So, you could use a much more stable jersey.
In my sample here I used Organic Cotton White Jersey as I wanted a classic, fairly structured white t-shirt. I also used the matching rib for the neckline. This is one of the easiest jerseys to work with as it is so stable. It doesn’t shift when cutting or sewing.
Iris Tee in Navy Tencel Jersey Fabric
For this post, I tried the Iris tee from Forget Me Not Patterns, for the first time. I love the sleeve detail! In contrast to the basic instinct, this t-shirt the Iris has negative ease of 5cm at the bust. This means it is stretch to fit and requires a significant amount of stretch from the fabric. I also prefer elasticity for comfort.
To that end, I chose the lovely Tencel jersey fabric in Navy, which is also beautifully drapey so you could use it for a looser t-shirt too. I love the plain colours, which are great for showing off the sleeve fold detail. The tencel content also means that creases hang out really easily – no ironing involved! This fabric is super soft and comfy to wear.
My second tip is when folding the fabric along the grainline, to cut the pieces on the fold, line the fold as perfectly as you can along the grain. This will stop the final garment twisting over time, like ready to wear often do.
Alya by Viki Sews in organic cotton jersey print
Lastly, I tried another new pattern, the Alya tshirt from Viki Sews. This is a classic oversized t-shirt and great for showcasing a print. Previously this pattern was in Russian, but now it is available in English too – it is beautifully drafted and all the pieces fit perfectly. There are again useful notches on the neckline. Because this pattern is over sized, you could use virtually any jersey fabric.
I have long been a fan of Elvelyckan and this blueberry print is so fun and great with jeans. Unfortunately sold out, but do check out other Elvelyckan Design prints.
This fabric has quite a bit of stretch (40%) from the elastane and is also really good for children’s clothes. A lovely Tencel jersey fabric will give a drapey, slinky, slightly more baggy look and a stable cotton/elastane like the white organic jersey is more structured. The Elvelyckan Design jersey is somewhere in between! I love the finished garment and I think I’ll wear it with leggings or tucked into a pair of more formal trousers.
My third tip for a lovely tshirt is to spend time getting the neckline just right – choosing a well drafted pattern will definitely help. The neckband needs to stretch slightly to fit so that it doesn’t flop forward when worn. I think basting the neckband on with the sewing machine can be a useful step if you plan to overlock it later.
Always use the correct seam allowance when basting and overlocking as this will affect how it sits on the neck quite significantly. Using a straight stitch to baste also can act as a stay stitch so that you don’t stretch the body fabric if you subsequently overlock the band on.
Neckline binding instructions
The basic instinct t-shirt also comes with instructions of how to bind the neck and shoulder seam. This looks so neat and isn’t nearly as hard as you would think. I tend only to bind the back neck (not the shoulders as well) and often use scraps from other projects as you can see here. It also helps to identify the back!
1. Cut a piece of fabric (so that the greatest stretch of the fabric is along its length), 4cm wide by the length of the back neck, plus about 10cm.
2. Fold in half lengthways and press, then fold one half over again and press to create a sort of binding.
3. Fold your neckband back so that the seam is exposed in front of you.
4. Pin the binding so that the folded edge is lined up with the outermost seam and the centre fold is roughly lined up with the bottom edge of your seam allowance and the binding is wrapped around. Stretch the neck slightly if necessary.
5. Fold either end under.
6. Stitch the top edge down, through all layers of the seam allowance only, stitching along the outer seam line (this won’t show on the outside).
7. Flip the seam over and trim off the excess as closely as possible to the new stitch line
8. Flip the bound seam back down and stitch to the main fabric using a thread that matches your binding on top, and your main fabric below (this will show on the outside).
Lastly, I use a coverstitch machine to finish my seams. But, I think a twin needle finish on a sewing machine is just as neat and sometimes easier to achieve! A twin needle for your sewing machine is easy to pick up (try stretch variant for jerseys) and almost all machines will have two spool pins – my machine is very basic and I used this until I had a coverstitch.
I hope these thoughts on sewing t-shirts are useful to you!
Nell x @nottsewfast
(Tencel jersey fabric and blueberry jersey gifted, thoughts and words my own).
