Tonight I’m going to share a project that’s quite popular on the French sewing blogs right now: a Plantain tee. It’s a free pattern released by Deer and Doe earlier this month. It’s not a shape I usually wear but I was curious and the challenge organized by Eleonore (owner of Deer and Doe) gave me the motivation I needed to try it.

I wanted to make it into a dress for the challenge, but was afraid to start the dress without making a test garment first (my measurements have changed since my pregnancy and I’m not used to D&D’s sizing), so this t-shirt came to life. I used remaining fabric from my pregnancy top. I didn’t have much fabric left and had to make the short sleeved version. I made it in size 38 without any pattern modifications (it fits in about 80cm of fabric if I remember correctly). I did reduce the hems though: I made them 1.5cm at the bottom and about 0.7cm at the sleeves, wich make the top and sleeves slightly longer.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this top when I tried it on: I found it lovely and more flattering than I thought it would be. Plus in this drapey fabric it’s very nice to wear. I couldn’t take pictures without another top under it because it’s cold right now, but I’ll try to take some as soon as possible to better show the nice neckline. I’m sure this baby will have brothers and sisters, especially since I’m now the happy owner of a serger (birthday present from my friends and family, thank you so much!). It made sewing this top a real pleasure. I couldn’t start working on it before last Sunday because of a sick Mr E. and a lack of ink in my printer, but I still managed to finish it yesterday. Yay for a quick and rewarding project (yes, that’s a quick make for me)!

At the last minute I decided to cut the neck band off grain to play with the stripes. I’m really happy I did it! I love the result and already got nice comments about it. Small details like this can make a difference. I changed the construction steps for the sleeves. The pattern has you sew them flat and then sew the sleeves bottom and the top sides in one go. Since I wanted to test the fit early on I sewed the shoulders, then the side seams, tried the top (it was okay), and then sewed the sleeves closed and set them in.

The contest ends tonight so my dress won’t be made on time, but I’m still happy that it made me discover this nice pattern. I really recommend it! And since all Deer and Doe patterns come in both French and English, you have no excuse not to try it.

Project firsts:

• first garment entirely sewn with a serger and coverstitch machine. I have to say that I was quite pleased of this and rather proud of my little t-shirt, as a knit fabrics beginner.
• first jersey neck band
• first Deer and Doe pattern
• first time sewing with my own serger!

The positive:

• the stripes almost match at the side seams! See above and below. Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t be happy that they almost match, but considering that I didn’t make it a priority, it’s a nice result. I didn’t spend much time on this but tried to place my pattern pieces roughly at the same level when I cut my fabric. The left side is quite nice. The right side only matches at the top, the bottom being totally off. I say it’s a good result/time ratio.
• I discovered a very nice pattern (and some people who saw my tee might try it also)
• I have a nice top to wear
• the serged seams look nice
• I used fabric and thread from my stash

The negative:

• I’m note as comfortable with the coverstitch machine we have at my sewing lessons as with my serger, I’m not very happy with how my hems look. Luckily you don’t see them too much on this busy fabric. I have to practice more!