Grainline Studios has recently released their free Hemlock Tee pattern in their new extended size range! I’ve loved the style of the top, and now it’s available in my size! You can get the pattern for free by subscribing to the Grainline email newsletter (which you can do here).
Based on Grainline’s new size chart (below) I made a size 24 (I’m 47″bust and around 54″ hip), and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the size on the arms was quite generous, and meant that I could skip doing a full bicep adjustment!
I cut out the 3/4 sleeve length and the length of the body is halfway between the cropped & mid-length body in this gingernut viscose spandex from Fabric Drop, which is based out of Dunedin in New Zealand. With some pattern tetris, I was able to cut this out from about 1.5 metres (and I’ve got a decent piece leftover too). I usually cut all my patterns on the open (flipping the pattern piece over and tracing a mirror image), and then cut sleeves (and other things I need to cut 2 of) one at a time. Doing that here certainly made it a pretty economical pattern!
The 3/4 length sleeves ended up being almost bracelet length for me, because I have quite narrow shoulders and my measurements put me in between size 20 and 22 but I made a straight size 24. I’m happy with the length, but would do some measuring of the full length arm piece before sewing that as I suspect it would be quite long.
I realised after the fact that I had inadvertently sewed up something almost identical to the Grainline sample on the right!
Here’s a short & cheerful post with 10 free sewing patterns which could be good for Christmas (which is a short 2 months away at this point). Also check out this recent post!
Are you interested in free patterns? Check out this post full of Christmas gift ideas, or this one full of eco-ish sewing patterns, and this one too.
Here’s a collection of gifts that might be appropriate for your dad? I don’t know him, so it’s tough for me to say. Perhaps they’d be good patterns for you to sew for yourself?
