A t-shirt of many errors and imperfections that is nevertheless wearable and workable for the wardrobe.

This is the Ruska tee from Breaking the Pattern, with no adjustments. Other than wanting to see if this could become my go-to tee pattern, when I dyed this bit of jersey it was with this t-shirt design in mind.

On the question of if this is “the” t-shirt pattern, it is a definite no. On the question of black-bean dying, I’m satisfied. Although even there…

Well let’s actually get into this. Got copyshop version of the tshirt awhile back - could have traced but what the hell, time is short. Dyed the fabric. Tye-dye-y but satisfying.

Tried checking the shoulders against my newly-traced shoulder line but realized that these are quite offset and that it might not be the best project to try this for the first time (so I’ll report on that tool’s utility later), so just went ahead. I’ve had good luck with Named mostly, being as I am on the straight-frame end of the body spectrum.

Also cut out some scraps for underwear, since I hadn’t dyed much extra and wanted to use it all up. Which was a bit of a mistake because disaster struck.

My damn needle was in worse wear than I knew. And I wasn’t paying attention and caused a zillion little needle cuts all through my armscye. Awful. And not particularly fixable because I already knew that the shoulder points would be tight as-is. Weirdly the damage was concentrated on the dyed, not the white fabric, which is a little weird because other than the dye process they are identical.

Anyway I was distraught. And frustrated. So I set the “easy” project aside - i was sewing in the living room at the time anyway, so time was limited - and moved on. Of course I set it down in a sunny spot and when I re-approached the project a couple months later, the sun had done some fading. There are areas that are definitely more “tan” than “grey” at this point, boo.

Thank goodness for Tanit-Isis who came up with my armscye solution. She suggested covering the damage with a strip, making the strip a decorative design element. Which is what I did. I should probably have been more careful with my topstitching, but I wasn’t and that’s that. The strip is also notably not sun-bleached, so there’s some contrast. Design elements.

Now the neckband. I’ve typically calculated neckbands myself since the first time I made a Named shirt and found the suggested neck caused annoying up-pointing, but I didn’t and I regretted it. Worse, the stretch is just not there so this barely gets over my head as-is. I was tempted to cut down the neckline and calculate a new neckband, but it would almost certainly have to be pieced and the disappointments were too much to go to that effort for the shirt.

Plus the shoulder slope isn’t right for me after all. But it’s a tshirt so not the biggest deal.

I hemmed it and called it a day. Or rather, I hemmed the bottom and the white sleeve then forgot to hem the grey sleeve and now I don’t think that’s going to happen either DESIGN DECISIONS.

I went to bed pretty over the whole garment, but put it on in the morning just to see and didn’t hate it. The shirt has now survived a wash and the bleaching is a bit more prominent after that, but live-able with. So really, it’s a completed project and that’s SOMETHING.

Pattern: Named Ruska tee from Breaking the Pattern
Size: 40
Measuerements: 36 full bust, 34 high bust
Fabric: Organic Cotton Jersey 160 gsm from Simplifi