Okay, Ed!! You, too, can become a sewist and this is an easy, but sartorial choice to begin with!!! AND...the pattern is FREE!!! You can download it here: Free Sewing Patterns from Tessuti!
The only tricky thing about this pattern is that it is "one size fits all". Seems easy enough, right? But, it also seems a little unlikely....unless you want it to look as though you and everybody else could fit in it!!! I perused various sewing posts to figure out the fit. I found these to be the most informative:
This one, from the Tessuti site itself, explains what went into making three different versions: Tessuti - Classic Mandy Stripes
And this one, from Danielle, who is just about my height and size with a cool blog, addresses 3 Mandy tees as well: Sewing and Cocktails - Mandy
Don't get me wrong. This is supposed to be a loose boat neck tee and I had no intention of trying to turn it into anything else. However, there's loose and there's looking like you are wearing a bed sheet. I wanted to hit somewhere in the middle. Additionally, many, many reviews noted that the neckline was quite high and the sleeves were very snug. Now, my arms are not huge, but I didn't want to have them look as though they were sausage wanna-be's, nor diminish normal range of motion. So...taking all the various comments and measurements into account....here's what I did.
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| I started with a super soft and drapey rib knit from JoAnn's and given what I'd learned, knew I was going to need to take out some of the fabric in the bodice of the shirt. The Tessuti link recommended pinching a bit (in her case 3.5 cm..I think) from the center and since the front and back pieces are cut on the fold that would have been the easiest solution. However, since then you have to worry about having made the neck opening too small, I opted to remove 3 cm from both the front and back pieces at the shoulder...just past the neck opening. I figured with the dropped shoulder, it wouldn't hurt anything and I could just extend the sleeves. I wanted to keep this a boatneck, but I didn't want to feel like Snoopy on a leash either, so I took a small crescent (1/2 inch at the center neck, curving to nothing at the end of the neck opening) from the front piece only, leaving the back alone. I also opened the pattern piece for the arm straight up the middle, leaving the shoulder attached like a hinge, to increase the diameter of the lower arm by about 1/2 inch. I adjusted the sleeve length to fall where I wanted it...taking the dropped shoulder into account. Once back, front, and arms were attached, but the arms and sides still waiting to be stitched - I cut another inch from both the bodice sides while the shirt was laid flat. Given the 'flimpy-ness' of my fabric, I did reinforce the shoulder seam with stay tape and used knit fusible tape at the neck, sleeve and waist hems. Seams were stitched with my serger. The hems were done with a double needle on Bernie! |
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| That seems like quite a lot of effort when you have a pattern, but...it really wasn't that bad once I got my head wrapped around what I was actually going to do! |
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| I think I left plenty of room in the bodice and am really glad I gave myself a smidge more space for my super jacked arms!!! I'm glad I didn't mess up the neckline, as that was the main allure to this pattern for me from the start! (Check out that stripe matching, Bentie!!!) |
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| I like my Mandy!!! Thanks, Tessuti! |
That turned out really cute! Don't you love it when a "simple pattern" gets complicated?! But now that you have your adjustments set, you can run with it!
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