Made By A Fabricista: A great tee shirt pattern – or three!

Hi fellow sewists! It’s Andrea @happy.things.here and I’m here today to talk tee shirts! I love a good tee pattern…or two…or four. Despite having more than enough of them in my pattern collection, I’m always up for trying a new one. And I also have my favorites and tried and trues (TNTs). I love the versatility of a good tee pattern – dress it up with fancy fabrics to make a work wardrobe piece, use a high quality solid to add some basics, or anything in between. Today I’m sharing three patterns I’ve used multiple times and with many different kinds of fabrics - all a little different and all great beginner patterns too.

First up is the newest addition to my pattern collection – the Upland tee and crop top by Rivet Patterns. They are a newer designer who I recently discovered when this tee pattern caught my eye. I love that it has multiple bodice options including a classic design tee and also a crop version with different separate and uniquely shaped bodice pieces. I first made the crop version from all Fabric Mart scraps – I absolutely love how it came out!

I recently participated in a pattern test for Rivet for their new Essential skirt pattern and made a pencil skirt from an athletic knit from Fabric Mart I had in my stash. So I decided to also sew up an Upland tee to go with it in this gorgeous hot pink urban rib knit from here too. I love how these two versions of the same tee look totally different based on my fabric choice.

For a little bit of a twist, I turned the skirt back to front which added fun design elements of the slit plus a seam down the front.

Here’s a close up of my Upland tee:

I love this combination!

Next up is a tee pattern that may have actually been the first tee pattern I ever bought and sewed up. This is the Plantain Tee by Deer & Doe. Recently Closet Core Patterns purchased and now sells the Deer & Doe pattern collection. I just checked and it’s still offered for free! What I love most about this tee is the shape of the neckline – I think it’s quite distinct. I’ve sewn 10+ of these over the last eight years; here is my most recent version in a cotton Lycra fabric:

Check out that neckline – isn’t it fun??

Last up is another TNT for me – the Bestie Tee from Pattern Emporium. I just love the fit of this tee and it is packed with options. You get multiple sleeves, multiple lengths, and multiple necklines. And for folks like me who solely use a projector for sewing, Pattern Emporium has AWESOME projector files that are a breeze to use.

For this most recent Bestie tee, I used a fancy glittery ITY fabric long in the stash from Fabric Mart – I think I bought this 3+ years ago. I was recently sewing up a few new pieces for a conference and added this one to work wardrobe:

I could talk tee shirts and tee shirt patterns all day long, but your time is probably better spent grabbing some fabric and sewing your own. I hope you enjoyed this post and perhaps discovered a new pattern!

Happy Sewing!