Shelly: FreeSewing's Shelly Shirt
Designer Notes
Shelly is my first design. It was born out of the need for shirts that can compress very tight (for sensory needs stemming from autism), and the lack of suitable ready made shirts. Undersized swim shirts are tight enough, but expose the belly and pinch in the armpits, so I set out to design a shirt that would be both comfortable and therapeutic.
Raglan sleeves are used to provide additional flexibility and mobility in the armpit, and are very important for very tight clothes.
That said, Shelly is a simple and versatile design capable of making knit tops over a wide range of eases, from tightly compressive compression shirts, to loose raglan tees. It makes a great first knit garment project, as it only uses five pieces of fabric cut from four pattern pieces, and features simple seams that can be entirely made with a serger/overlocker. It’s also fairly tolerant of small errors in measuring/cutting/sewing due to the elastic nature of knits, especially swim fabric, and the lack of any fine features requiring too much attention to detail on Shelly.
The name is chosen because I like the beach and I like seashells.
Thrunic
What You Need
To make Shelly, you will need the following:
- Basic sewing supplies
- Between 0.5 - 2 meters (0.6 - 2.2 yards) of a suitable fabric, depending on
size and style (see Fabric options)
- A kids’ short-sleeve rash guard can probably be made with 0.5 meters with fabric left over.
- A looser-fitting long-sleeved swim shirt or t-shirt for a tall adult will take closer to 2 meters.
- Two different colors or prints of fabric can be used (one for the sleeves, one for the bodice).
- (Optional) Ribbing fabric for the neck, if using less stretchy fabric.
- (Optional) Contrasting color thread, if making exposed seams.
Fabric Options
This pattern is designed to work with stretch/knit fabrics, particularly spandex.
For swim shirts, rash guards, compression shirts, athletic shirts, and other performance-oriented shirts, four-way stretch fabric is strongly recommended. For more casual raglan t-shirts, two-way stretch jersey should work fine.
For compression clothes and swimwear, a 20:80 ratio of nylon/polyester to spandex/elastane is recommended. More elastic fabrics allow for greater negative ease, will give better mobility, and will be more forgiving to measurement/design errors.
The raglan sleeves lend themselves well to using different colors/prints for the body and for the sleeves.
With swim fabric/spandex, it is recommended to make the neckband out of the same material used for the shirt. For less stretchy fabric, such as cotton jersey knit, ribbing is recommended.
Cutting Instructions
- Cut 1 front part on the fold
- Cut 1 back part on the fold
- Cut 2 sleeve parts
- Cut 1 neckband part on the fold