Travel Trio T

So I have made a lot of T-shirts in my life. There is something wonderfully satisfying to me about making T-shirts. They're a great way to use up a yard or so of that 'extra' fabric I always have laying around. When I shop for fabric, I usually pick up at least 3 yards. 'Cuz ya never know, right? You never know what you'll end up wanting to do with this fabric.

So a few years ago, I made a dress from this fabric, and had just under a yard left over. So I kept looking at this fabric, thinking it'd make a perfect T. I made this shirt using Christine Jonson's new Travel Trio pattern. I wore the shirt to work under my black suit jacket and my ubiquitous black pants. With a 3 inch heel, the outfit looked fab, if I do say.

And, what a wonderful T-shirt draft this is! Christine Jonson is one of my favorite independent pattern companies, because her designs are always eminently wearable for my life. And (this is a big 'and'), her instructions and techniques are easy to do, and always produce a very professional result. I think this is because Christine created and sold her own line of ready-to-wear for many years before starting her pattern company. So she gives us the benefit of her real world experience.

In this design, Christine's treatment of the neckline is super-simple and yields impeccable results. Essentially, you fold your neckline binding, then apply it to the raw edge of the neckline, subsequently topstitching it down. I am lucky in that I have both a serger and a coverstitch machine, so I used the serger to apply the neckline binding, then I coverstitched it down. I think I've found my new favorite T-shirt pattern.

The next time I make this shirt, I'm going to open the neckline a bit. I think I'll lower it by 1 inch. That said, I'm still very happy with this shirt.

Next up - I want to make the other garments in this pattern. Stay tuned!