Orange Sherbet Tee: Tutorial

Today I'm bringing to you my first official tutorial and... drum roll please... free pattern. The pattern is approximately for size 12 months. It fits my little girl who is 32 inches and 21 lbs, so if your child is that size feel free to download the pattern, if not just follow along by using a shirt that fits your child well.

What you'll need:

• 1 yard of knit fabric (I used a remnant, so you'll probably actually be using  less then a yard) (for some tips on knits check out my post: Yoga Skirt: Maternity)
• Double fold bias tape (extra wide is probably easiest)  ( note - I used woven bias tape with knit fabric. You have to be a bit careful not to stretch out the fabric as you pin and sew it.  I've heard that there is knit bias tape which may work better, but I've never tried it and don't know where to even find it)
• Orange Sherbet Tee Pattern   (If your child is a not a shorty like mine, you might want to add a little bit of length to the bodice) (Be sure to print with no scaling.  There is an inch test box to make sure it printed correctly)

Start by turning your shirt inside out, and fold in half to make the body of the shirt. Trace around leaving extra seam allowance for the shoulders and the sides.  Don't worry about the neck line because we will be closing that in with bias tape later.  (I think I forgot to do this when I was tracing the pattern, because I later had to cut the neck line in an extra inch)

Trace around your sleeve, placing the top of the sleeve on the edge.  Later we will be placing that part on the fold.  Notice how I added extra space  on the bottom part of the sleeve.  This is because I wanted to have extra so I could gather a bit and have the sleeve a little ruffly.  (If you decide not to use a knit be sure to give a bigger hem allowance so that you can fold the exposed edge under or you could just surge or zigzag)

   

Cut out on the fold two of the bodice, one for the front and one for the back. Cut out two of the sleeve.


While the back bodice piece is still folded in half, cut about four inches down into the neck line. This will be for the keyhole closure.

Put the two bodice pieces right sides together and sew the shoulder pieces together. Iron your seams open. Don't worry about finishing any of these edges because we are using knit and it won't fray.  If you are not using a knit be sure to surge or zig zag your edges. 




Take the sleeve and fold over the straight edge for the hem.  Again not worrying about the edges because knit won't fray.   (In my pictures, I didn't hem it before attaching it to the shirt.  Ignore this.. and do it before attaching.. I'm really not sure why I did that...I think I was just being lazy. ) If you're not using knit, again be sure to surge or zigzag your edges BEFORE hemming.

I used a double needle on the sleeves.  I've never used a double needle before and I totally liked the look of it.  I then BROKE the double needle, so had to do the bottom hem without it.  :(



Take the rounded longer edge and sew a basting stitch. Gather the sleeves until they are the right length to fit the armholes.

Pin to shirt and sew.  When you turn it inside out, your shirt will have cute little sleeves like the picture below.

This is what your shirt will look like before sewing together... already it's looking like a cute little shirt.  :)

Turn it so right sides are together and sew down the sides.  You'll also have a little bit of the sleeve that is raw, so you'll want to sew that together too. Continue from the side and end your seam at the sleeve hem.

Then take your bias tape and pin it around your collar.  If you are like me, just sandwich the shirt inside of the bias tape (  I found out this is officially the cheating way ). If you sandwich it, just make sure the smaller side is on the outside of the shirt so that when you topstich it on, it will catch the side underneath.  If you would like, use the real way and unfold it to sew. (Here is a good tutorial on that: Sewing on bias tape by MADE)   I had this cute vintage bias tape which I wanted to use.  It was soooo small and really hard to sew on, so I would advise using the extra wide bias tape. 

Take a second piece of bias tape and put it around the keyhole.  I didn't do this, and used  two more pieces, one for each side of the keyhole and ended up having to cover the exposed bottom of the keyhole, so yours will come out looking better then mine.

Then take a piece of elastic and fold it like below.Sew together, then attach it to the back of one side of your keyhole opening.

Sew on a button on the other side of the keyhole where the the loop hits and you should now be able to button your shirt closed.

Hem up the bottom of your shirt and you're done!

You now have a cute little shirt for your little girl to wear. :)

Hope you were able to follow along and I didn't confuse you too much.  :)  Happy sewing!