Win Some; Lose Some
Sewing / Posted on May 4th, 2011
If Audrey wore one:
And Picasso:
And Coco:
…then a striped sailor shirt must be a good thing right? Well, right or wrong, I’ve been obsessed with making one for over a year now. My first attempt wasn’t exactly traditional, but I was proud of the job I did matching up stripes:
I ended up donating that one to a local charity, because it kept falling off my shoulders. Hopefully, it found a good home.
For my second attempt, I tried another Burda WOF pattern, 02/2010/112A, styled more traditionally, i.e. raglan sleeves and a boat neck. Again, stripe-matching turned out pretty good (if I don’t say so myself). The Burda Stylists didn’t even manage that much (and the collar looks equally bad–why don’t I see these things BEFORE I sew?):
However, if the sloppy striped t-shirt will attract hunks like that one…
Unfortunately, even though I kept shortening and snugging up the collar facing/band thingy, it REFUSES to lay flat. You can’t really see how bad it is in this photo–but trust me, when I move my arms the back collar turns into a gaping maw that could swallow killer whales whole.
It screams poorly-made rather than designer chic. I’ll give it a test drive for awhile to see if it will stop bugging me. If not, this one will be headed for the charity shop and version 3 will be in the works shortly. I love the fabric I found at my local store. It’s just the right weight, the stripes are the perfect width and it’s sooooft. Might was well try again while this is available.
Posted by 
May 4th, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Ah, gaping! I hate it when that happens. It looks good on the pic, though! Very nice job you´ve done with the stripes! Impressive.:-)
But if you´re still unsatisfied with it, and decide to go for a third version, I can recommend another BWOF pattern. It´s got regular sleeves, though. It´s got a boatneck and 3/4 length sleeves. It´s pattern number 108-02-2009.
May 4th, 2011 at 1:56 pm
I’m looking at the top and I’m thinking, “did you put a band finish rather than the Burda and turn over and top stitch method?” Then I’m thinking, “if you used the band method, did you calculate the band length based on the fabric’s stretch?” If the answer is yes to both then I don’t know what’s wrong – otherwise it looks to me like the body needs to be eased into a smaller band.
It’s very cute though, and nice stripe matching! I liked the first version a lot and am not sure why you don’t like it – it looks really good to me.
May 4th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
It looks like the raglan shaping has made the shoulders too sloped. Perhaps you can try adding small darts in the centre of the sleeve from the neck to the shoulder to help it sit better. You may need to lower the armholes slightly as well, as the darts will take up some of the armhole depth.
May 4th, 2011 at 6:12 pm
I’m sorry the neckline didn’t turn out well. You definitely can’t tell from the photo. I love striped tops and have an embarrassing amount in my closet. I’m always on the lookout for striped knit fabric to make more. Definitely get more of that fabric and try again!
May 4th, 2011 at 9:35 pm
You have done an excellent job on the pattern matching but I keep away for raglan sleeves for the reason you mention with this top. I can also recommend BWOF 108-02-2009, I have made it up in a plain fabric but have two lots of striped fabric in the stash and one is destinted to be this top again.
May 5th, 2011 at 7:43 am
Thank you for the suggestions! I’m going to do some experimenting!