Y
Yvonne Busdeker
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- Thread Author
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Designer: Catherine Holbrook
IG: bringingsewingback
YouTube: @bringingsewingback
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Category: Sewing
Size or Dimensions: Check pattern for required fabric, but somewhere between 1-2 yards.
Skill Level: Beginner Friendly
DESCRIPTION: Every sewist needs a tried and true t-shirt pattern in their Rolodex. Thankfully, I’ve found the perfect FREE pattern for this! In today’s blog post I will walk you through how to sew up your very own Friday Pattern Company Sunday V Neck. This is an easy-to-sew wardrobe staple featuring raglan sleeves and a ribbed v neckline. With it’s color blocking options, this pattern makes for a great scrap-busting project.
Designed to be gender neutral, this pattern can be made for all the loved ones in your life. I’m imagining color blocking for your favorite sports teams, school colors or Colorstrology. Grab your OLFA tools and we will begin!
TOOL & SUPPLIES NEEDED:
OLFA Products:
OLFA RM-CLIPS/3-01 35” x 70” Continuous Grid, Double-Sided, Self-Healing Rotary Mat Set
OLFA 45mm RTY-2/C Quick-Change Rotary Cutter, Aqua
OLFA 5-Inch SCS-4 Precision Appliqué Scissors
OLFA QR-6x24 6" x 24" Frosted Acrylic Ruler
Fabric:
The Sunday V Neck is designed for knit fabrics with at least 25% stretch. You will need between 1-2 yards, depending on your size. But this is a perfect project for scrap busting via color blocking.
Pattern:
You can find the Friday Pattern Company Sunday V Neck here at no cost to you!
SEWING TUTORIAL:
We will begin by cutting out the pattern pieces that we need.
Cut the Following Pieces:
Front - Cut 1 on the Fold
Back - Cut 1 on the fold
Sleeve - Cut 2 as a Mirror Image Set
Neckline Binding - Cut 1
OLFA’s Rotary Cutters are great tools to use when cutting out knit fabric! This is because the sharp blades are able to glide across the fabric in a way that reduces shifting and stretching of the fabric. The best on the market, OLFA’s blades can cut through up to eight layers of fabric at a time! You could easily batch cut multiple shirts at once.
Locate the front piece. Using a marking pin or a basting stitch, measure 3/8” each side of the front V, starting about an inch from the point. These lines will help determine the location for attaching the neckband in a future step.
Locate one sleeve piece. Place the sleeve on top of the front piece, right sides together, aligning the armscye.
Using a 5/8” seam allowance, attach the piece with either a stretch stitch or a serger. Make sure to clip your thread tails with the Precision Applique Scissors!
Press the seam allowance towards the sleeve.
Repeat for the remaining sleeve.
Locate the back piece. With right sides together, align the back armscye to the other side of the sleeve.
Stitch together using a 5/8” seam allowance. Press the seam allowance towards the sleeve.
Repeat with the remaining sleeve.
Locate the neckline Binding. Fold in half lengthwise, wrong sides together. Press.
Overlap the ends (left over right), to create the V point in the front. Pin in place.
Using a basting stitch, stitch 3/8” away from the raw edges across the V. This will reflect what we did earlier on the front bodice piece.
On the front bodice piece, snip into the v neck point up to, but not through, the marking.
Place the neckband on top of the front bodice V point, right sides together, aligning the stitchlines/markings. It should look exactly as this photo shows.
Stick a pin through the V neck point that your markings intersect your neck binding piece.
The pin will act as the pivot point when sewing on your machine. Swivel the neckband to align the raw edges on one side of the neck opening. Start by sewing 1.5” above the point on one side of the V, with a 1/2” seam allowance.
When you reach the pin, keep your needle down, remove the pin, and swivel your neckband piece to align to the other side of the neck opening.
Continue sewing with a 1/2” seam allowance another 1.5” on the other side.
Flip the neck band right sides out, and give the V a good press.
To finish the neckband, pin the remaining neckband to the neck opening of the bodice. The neckband is slightly smaller than the neck hole opening, so you will need to slightly stretch the neckband to fit.
Attach with a 1/2” seam allowance, pressing the seam allowance toward the bodice. If desired, topstitching can be done along the neckline with a stretch stitch or coverstitch machine.
Flip the front bodice over onto of the back bodice, so that the front and back are right sides together.
Aligning the side seams and underarm seams, sew to attach all in one go, using a 5/8” seam allowance. Press.
The final step is to determine how much you want to hem both the sleeves and bottom hem. Because this pattern is gender neutral, the amount hemmed may vary person to person. I decided to remove one inch from the sleeves, and 3 inches from the bottom.
Once the length was removed, I hemmed with a 1” hem allowance and finished with a coverstitch. Your t-shirt is now complete!
As mentioned this shirt is a great pattern for using your scrap fabric and playing around with color blocking. For this tutorial I decided to make an Eastern Kentucky University color scheme to wear to games.
But I also made a plain white t-shirt for more daily wear.
And, a fun galaxy print t-shirt to pair with some loungewear pants I made previously.
I hope you give this quick and simple t-shirt pattern a try! And don’t forget to pick up your favorite OLFA Tools at your local supplier!
