Renfrew T-shirt

I finally got to sewing on my Renfrew pattern!  I used a royal blue and white striped knit from Fabric Mart.  It is not available any more, unfortunately,  and I don’t know what it’s fiber content is, either.  This was also my first time *ever* working with stripes!  And while it’s not 100% perfect, I think it’s pretty damn awesome for my first try!  It makes me really glad I started using my walking foot.  Check at these side seams!

I also did, in fact, do the cuffs and waist band, but you can barely tell!  I thought about doing them perpendicular for contrast (and to hopefully hide any mistakes making them crooked), but I went with parallel.  As for the spacing on the cuffs, that was pure luck.  For the most part the pieces were exactly “x” stripes wide, so I just used them for my cutting lines and things just worked out!

This was also my first time utilizing the stretch stitches on my machine.  I really didn’t even realize I had them until a few weeks ago, but started reading the manual and found out they were there!  This shirt feels really sturdy using these “fancy” stitches compared to usually just using a zig zag stitch.  I did do a zig zag for my top stitching, though, since I still haven’t mastered making the stretch stitches look pretty, yet.  Add in more practice, a walking foot, and some patience, and I think I have done my best top stitching ever so far!

As for the fit, I have some tweaks to make next time.  I added an inch in length, since I’m tall, but I’m not sure I really needed to.  I made a size 10 based on my measurements, but will do it different next time.  I think it fits fine in the bust, but too big (just a bit) in the waist.  The waistband is tight, but my jersey didn’t have a ton of stretch, so I’ll have to play with that next time.  But the shoulders and cuffs were definitely too small.  I’ll have a bunch of tweaking to do next time!  Even with the changes that need to be made, this is still very comfortable and will be made again!  I already have more fabric queued up to be transformed into my next comfy shirt!