Goldilocks and the Three Tees

Once upon a time...

My decision, earlier this year, to dress in more body-conscious clothing has had an interesting effect on my sewing; after at  least twenty years of making looser, more "floaty" items, I am having to learn all over again how to fit my clothing. I thought it might just involve using a smaller size, or taking bigger seams, or putting in more darts. It has turned out to be a little more complicated. For instance, in making a simple tee, I used to choose a pattern whose measurements corresponded pretty much to mine; my biggest concern was if I needed to add a little in the hips, otherwise the tee was simple, straight and easy-to-sew. Last week I set out to make a more fitted tee, and my results
reminded me of Goldilocks...

The first tee, from KS2740, I made from a pretty tie-dyed knit I got on eBay. It's

either cotton or modal, with very little stretch. I made View C, but with long sleeves.

It's OK...I would have been happy with this in the past, and I will wear this. But,
for my current purposes, it's TOO BIG.

So then I tried another pattern, KS3338, which I've had and used for a long time.

I made this up yesterday in a black/white striped jersey, I'm not sure of the fabric, either cotton or rayon with a substantial amount of stretch. I really liked it until I tried it on....TOO SMALL!

So today, I was determined to find the one that was JUST RIGHT...and I think I did

I retraced the pattern, going for about halfway between sizes, and I think it worked.

I like the looks of the black and white stripe so much, and it is so perfect in my wardrobe, that I ordered more fabric to make another, better fitting one. After messing up the neckband on tee #1, following the pattern directions, I used the very popular Sarah Veblen tutorial for making knit neckbands, and the rest all came out perfectly.

Besides the tee project, I made Vogue 8793, Katherine Tilton's "zipper neck" tee

in a whimsical rayon knit from Emma One Sock. Here's my version:

Here are more pictures of the Goldilocks tees:

Stay tuned for pictures from my fabric shopping in Los Angeles last weekend!