Slim Fit Tee

 Today is the last tee shirt in Boy’s Tee week! What a fun journey it has been! Jude has been loving all of his new tees, he even asked me today what tee we would make next.The flickr group has been growing with some incredible tees! I can’t wait to include them in the round up tomorrow. I thought we would end with Jude’s favorite tee. We came to a compromise for this one. You see I am not a huge fan of character shirts. Jude will ask for a Lightning McQueen, Buzz Lightyear, or Super Hero shirt from time to time, I tend to just kindly guide him to Pajamas, or Underwear, which is full of all his favorite characters. That way we both win. However as he has gotten older he has asks more often and when we were making tee shirts and deciding what we should put on him he was begging for Transformers. So I thought I would make one that was “cartoony” and a little more “modern” So we drew one on to the slim fit tee I made him.

 I like the “barely there” graphic that almost has a vintage feel. It kind of makes the slim fit tee. So let’s make one shall we?

 One of my favorite things of making your own tee is that it can fit however you like. SO many store bought tees are square and boxy and rather wide for little boys. So I like to make them a slimmer fit. To do this I like to use super stretchy jersey knit (something that stretches in more than one direction) In this case I had this scoop neck top in my pile. However I wanted to use the neckline but not the scoop. (you know since it is for a boy) Doing this it fairly easy.

 Start by cutting the sleeves off and then cutting the shoulder seam.

 Then lay it so the front and back have the fold down the middle and the side seams match up. This allows you to easily cut a front and back piece.

 Then simply follow a tee shirt that fits fine and match the neckline up to the front and the back separately and cut around the tee. This is where you would make the tee a little slimmer and I usually add a little length as well.

 Then you should have a front and back as well as follow the sleeves and cut out two sleeves. Then start by sewing the shirt pieces right side together at the shoulder.

 Now is a good time to add a graphic or design to the front since it is easy when the top still lays flat. Jude helped me choose the transformer drawing he liked. I printed it out. However unlike the bicycle tee the brown was too dark to trace the picture. I am certainly not an artist and I didn’t trust my “free hand skills”. So I started by cutting out the transformer and then I laid it out on the shirt. I used a fabric marker to trace around the edge of the cutout.

 Then looking at the graphic and following the outline I began filling in the details. It’s totally not perfect but it was pretty easy to add the little details.

 Then since I didn’t take pictures of the last steps for some reason we will just use the pictures from the henley. Attach the sleeves into the sides arm openings of the shirt. Sew in place.

Then fold the top so the front and back are right sides together sew from the edge of the sleeve to the armpit and then turn and go down the sides. Then you can hem the bottom and the sleeves if you like. I left them raw for this top, it’s jersey knit so it can be raw.

 That’s all there is to it. A new slim fitting, super stretchy tee with a cool new graphic to please any boy.

 Using the old neckline left a nice finished neck.

So here’s to happy boys with a closet full of tee shirts they love!
See you here tomorrow for the boys tee round up!
(the project runway recap is coming we will totally chat all things runway come monday! So go online and watch it this weekend if you haven’t already!)