I'm so So SO glad that I finished the Sew By Pattern Pieces Fun Tee BEFORE we made this cross country trip. As you probably read yesterday, I haven't had nearly the amount of sewing time I would have wanted. But before I get ahead of myself, let me give you the details.

The Sew By Pattern Pieces Fun Tee is a simple slim fit girls tee in sizes 1-12. It has multiple sleeve options including: slim fit or puff sleeve, with both short and long sleeve options. This shirt is a blank canvas just waiting to be something more.

Now normally I would follow that up with some way that I hacked, modified or otherwise changed the Fun Tee. Not this time. As much as I love making the wild and crazy things, my daughter had a GIANT hole in her wardrobe. Basics. I admit, despite my hours spent crafting things, I shy away from the simple, solid colored, no muss, no fuss item. So unless I wanted her wearing stripes with her polka dots and fox print skirt, we needed a well matching item.

My daughter fit 100% into the size 5, even including length. She is pretty average in size, so I wasn't surprised. And I had JUST enough of this beige cotton/lycra from Purple Seamstress to sew up this tee.

I LOVE the puff sleeve and of course my girls do too. They call them princess sleeves, and I'm sure you understand why.

This pattern is really well drafted and I continue to be impressed with Sew By Pattern Pieces. The sleeve is a full pattern piece with a distinctive front and back. The front and back pattern pieces are completely different with different armscye. Yes, you can draft a t-shirt for kids using same front/back and only differ the neckline. But this pattern goes the extra step and I think it is great that there are designers making the more precise patterns. There are front and back notches, and even markings for where the neckband should line up with the shoulders. It is 100% professionally drafted and fit my daughter precisely to measurements.

The other thing I love about Sew By Pattern Pieces is that you get finished pattern measurements. That way if your kid doesn't fit perfectly into the size range, you can see how much length, width difference there is in each size and blend your sizes accordingly. And if that isn't enough, the pattern includes instructions for several ways to blend and modify the pattern.

This pattern is drafted for a 25% stretch jersey. I used a 100% stretch cotton/lycra. The pattern recommends using a smaller neckband size and I absolutely did that. Turned out perfectly. I love when the pattern does the thinking for you. <3

The pattern further includes suggestions for shortening your pattern pieces for the natural, length stretch of some fabrics (like merino wool). For a t-shirt pattern, there is a LOT of learning opportunity in this pattern. So if you're a beginner or still learning about how to: blend sizes, make length adjustments, modify for the stretch of your fabric, you might learn a thing or two with this pattern. It even talks about sewing needles, wooly nylon, different ways to hem, and stabilizing the shoulders of a shirt.

Finally, my favorite part of this pattern are the nice, neat line drawings of the different options and the neat little chart of which pattern pieces were needed. I hate when a pattern has a bunch of options and you're not sure which pieces you need to print. If you print all the sizes with out using layers, etc, the total pattern includes 18 pages. BUT, if you use the layers and print only what you need, I was able to get the short sleeve puff sleeve tee on 11 pages.

So what can I complain about?
#1- Seam allowances are 1/4". These annoy me. I can definitely do them and they work out fine, but I always worry that I'm going to not be as careful and then have a less than perfect project. I really prefer 3/8" seam allowances, but the truth is it doesn't really matter.
#2- I hate gathering sleeves. <gasp> I know, I know. But I just hate it. I hate gathering stitches. They just annoy me. REALLY annoy me. To my knowledge, there is no shortcut way to do it that will leave your project looking perfectly finished. And well, I like shortcuts. If you tell me there is no short cut, just the hard way, well I'm going to be cranky. :)

For all my crankiness, I really like the puff sleeve. It sits perfectly and the seam allowance is just enough to help elevate it. I was thinking, as I was done that I should have followed the directions and used a larger size to make more "puff" in my sleeve. But then again, that would also mean more gathering, and grr...

And finally, (if my rambling hasn't been enough for you), I am REALLY impressed with all my photographing opportunities here in Wyoming. I can think of hundreds of local, easy to access places to take photos. So you can quit looking at my old posts with my silly gray background and finally get some lovely texture, color and happiness in my photos. Even if you still get the occasional photo bomber. ;)

AND AND, there is a FREE pattern piece available in the Sew By Pattern Pieces Facebook Group for a pocket pattern. So you can add pockets to any t-shirt, just join the group. :)

AND AND AND (because 2 ands was not enough), you can get your copy for just $5 in the etsy store! Discounted price expires June 4th. Don't miss out on this great pattern. :)