I love my Perfect T-shirt.

The concept behind The Perfect T-Shirt is to make a working muslin and make any adjustments you need to that tee and the pattern at the same time. That’s a really great idea.

I did do that, but there were still a couple of changes I wanted to make before I had my absolutely perfect tee.

The neckline on my first tee fits me the same as any other RTW tee – it gapes a bit. Sizing down would be too small, so it was time to figure out what adjustment needed to be made.

I pulled out a favorite resource.

The recommendation in this book for a gaping neckline is to adjust the shoulders. Perfect. You can download a sample from the book here.

It was time for my wonderful knit sloper to come out again and compare it to the pattern.* (see the note at the bottom of the post)

Do you see how the shoulders aren’t the same? My sloper (on top of the pattern) really shows my shoulders are shorter at the neckline edge than the pattern’s. That difference on the front and back on each side adds up to 1″ more than I need around the neckline.

I also adjusted the hip area on the pattern. I had graded up to a Medium in the hips on my first tee and it gave it a bit of a peplum look. As well, the hips were a bit loose, but a Small wouldn’t give me enough room in the Hips. I was right in-between the two sizes, so I re-drew my cutting line right in-between those two size lines.

Sewing up my Perfect T-shirt was fine. I did do one thing differently than what is recommended in the pattern instructions. One thing they do recommend is to sew the sleeves in before sewing the sides up. I really like that flat constructions style of sewing garments. It makes it easier. Along that same way of thinking, I used knit interfacing on the shirt hem and the sleeve hem and added those to the garment while the pieces were flat too. The instructions say to do that after the garment is all sewn. I did that the first time and let me tell you, this is a lot easier. It might be different if I were using the same products Pamela recommends though.

The only other little bump on the road to sewing this was I adjusted both shoulders to make the neckline fit better and forgot to adjust the neckline binding. So I had it all cut out and was pinning it, and couldn’t figure out why there was more. I went and checked the pattern again.Still didn’t clue in. Remember that inch I mentioned before? That was exactly how much extra I had. I rolled my eyes when I realized what I had done. It was a small bump. I adjusted the binding and wrote it in my pattern for next time.

I wasn’t the only one to write a note on my instructions. I went away for a weekend a while ago and I guess DS1 was bored. I have these little ‘hi’ notes all over. I smile when I find a new one. I just found this one this week.

Here’s my new Perfect T-shirt.

I also lengthened the sleeves a bit too. On my next one I plan to play with the sleeves some more.

I’m loving these cotton/Lycra knits my local fabric store is carrying.

Here’s a close up of the only part of my Perfect tee that really needed changing.

We’ll all have to wait until I have a photographer to see it on me.

Happy creating!