Mandy Boat Tee (x 2)

Here we have two Mandy Boat Tees - a free pattern from Tessuti that has recently been re-released as a multi-sized pattern over it's old "one size fits some" iteration. I've sewn quite a few of the old and new versions of this pattern - and in both versions I have modified the boat-neck finish to allow me to use a neckband to finish the neck. I find this a much neater way to finish the top and also feel it extends the longevity of the garment as the fold-over boatneck never keeps its shape on my tops. 

This black and white fabric is a "sweater knit" donated to the recent fabric destash I attended - donated by @LynneSews.  I don't think this fabric had great "hanger appeal" but sewn up I really like it, REALLY like it. The sleeves are a smidge too tight but I think that is a result of the fabric and its level of stretch. 

The fabric for this second Mandy Boat Tee was another donated to the fabric destash, this time by @NatashaSews. It's an absolutely lovely viscose-type knit -- I'm not sure why it was donated as it's so pretty but I pounced on it as soon as I saw it. This top fits well and is very comfortable but annoyingly I sewed the neckband on backwards so the join is at the front 🙄🙄🙄 - but the fabric thankfully hides this quite well....

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Pattern: Mandy Boat Tee by Tessuti
Size: Size 4
Modifications: lengthened by 4cm. Also, added a neckband.
Fabric: B&W sweater knit donated to the fabric destash by @LynneSews (orignally from Fabric Deluxe)
Fabric: Floral knit donated to the fabric destash by @NatashaSews (originally from Pitt Trading)
Changes for next time: none

The new old Mandy Boat Tee

I've been sewing Tessuti's Mandy Boat Tee for over four years  (and 20kgs ago). I made my first one in a class at Tessuti and the pattern was WAY too small for me then - one size does not fit all! Back then the teacher modified the pattern to fit me by making the sleeves and arm holes bigger. It was my go-to top pattern for years but recently, with the...ah...fullness of my biceps getting..fuller...it just didn't really fit anymore *sad face*.

Just recently Tessuti re-released the pattern and it now includes four sizes. I decided to give the size 4 a go. I wasn't feeling optimistic as the new sleeve pattern was the same size as the modified one I had from my class all those years ago. HOWEVER....I'm very please to say that the new pattern fits me very well! Whilst the sleeve pieces are the same size as my old pattern the shoulders on the size 4 are dropped more so the sleeve/armhole join no longer hit me at the fullest part of my arm.

I've worn this top a few times since finishing it a few weeks ago and I really like it. The length is as drafted and it works well with my current wide-legged pants obsession.

The fabric* (some sort of viscose knit) was a nightmare to work with but the print is great. I bought the fabric on a Spoolettes shopping trip to Cabramatta a few weeks ago - $7/meter. It was cut badly and was off grain but I like the end result so the pain of sewing it is a distant memory.

Of course when you make something you like you back it up straight away by sewing a second one! I added an inch to the length of this one but sewed a 2" hem (I didn't like the mean little hem on my first make). Despite my sad face in these photos I LOVE THIS TOP. The fabric* (some sort of viscose knit) was bought from the markets in Hanoi so has good memories attached to it. It's been in my stash for 18 months and I'm glad to finally have it made into something I like.

Here's a close up of the fabric - cute, right? And it looks extra cute with the twee little birdie necklace.

Of course two of these tops is just not enough so I'm in the process of sewing up a black one. It,s going to be too hot soon to wear them but I'm hoping they'll work from my trip to Taipei at NYE.

* both of these fabrics are very light, drapey and quite stretchy. If I was to make this pattern in something with less stretch I'd probably not be quite so happy.

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A Mandy Boat Tee (Jumper)

I've been finding the sleeves of Tessuti's Mandy Boat Tee a wee bit tight on my upper arms thus my last few makes haven't been that comfy. The shape of the sleeve piece curves in quite a bit so I thought if I straightened it up it would give me more room where I needed it - and it did! The sleeves are already modified a little bit from when I did a class with Tessuti (ages ago) - so this is just taking the alternation a bit further. Changing the shape of the sleeve piece worked well and I now have a top that is comfortable to wear.

I decided to make a long sleeve type jumper from a fabric I bought in Tessuti with the idea of taking this to Japan with me on my recent holiday. I had bought this fabric for a specific project but I cannot for the life of me remember what that was...so instead we have this top.  Whilst it's a pretty print, the fabric snags on EVERYTHING so I cannot imagine it having a long life span. Even the rough skin on fingertips causes the fabric to snag and pill. It caught on the feeddogs on my sewing machine...you get the drift.

Here I am in a public bathroom in Tokyo taking a selfie of my top. I only wore it once as I don't really like it. There's the fabric issue, but I also made it shorter than I normally do so it meant I didn't want to wear it with my tight ponti pants which made up the bulk of the pants I packed for the trip.

I've also started adding a neckband to my Mandy Boat Tee's - I just think it looks nicer.

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Pattern: Mandy Boat Tee by Tessuti
Size: One size fits...most
Modifications: lengthened by 7cm (but hemmed at about 2"), the sleeves/arms made bigger for me a sewing class I did at Tessuti plus the extra alteration mentioned above. Also, added a neckband.
Fabric: knit from Tessuti
Changes for next time: none

...just another stripey Mandy Boat Tee

My stripey Spotlight fabric makes a second appearance - this time as a Tessuti Mandy Boat Tee, a pattern I've now made about 30 times!

As with my Marianne Dress the fabric was very nice to sew with, and is nice and comfy to wear given the amount of stretch it has.

I've decided that I'm not keen on the drafted neckline treatment of the Mandy Boat Tee as I can never get the shoulder darts quite right and it looks a bit messy (though it is super easy to sew)! I'm not sure who I am anymore as I voluntarily sewed a neckband on to my top!

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Pattern: Mandy Boat Tee by Tessuti
Size: One size fits...most
Modifications: lengthened by 9cm (but hemmed at about 2"), the sleeves/arms made bigger for me a sewing class I did at Tessuti.
Fabric: Viscose knit from Spotlight
Changes for next time: might lop off a few cms at the hem, but probably not.

Black Mandy Boat Tee

Not a very exciting make, or a new to me pattern - but I've (finally) made myself a Mandy Boat Tee in black jersey. Of course it probably would've been wiser to do this when the weather was cooler as it's a bit hot to wear this now. This fabric, from The Remnant Warehouse, also doesn't have a light breezy feel to it.

I've taken a different approach with stitching this top - using a straight stitch for the neckband (and hem) as I think it looks much neater than my wobbly zigzagging and I saw someone on Instagram doing this and she said she had no issues with popped stitches. I increased the stitch length a bit to ensure the neckline does have a bit of give and won't pop when I'm putting it on, but the hem is sewn at the regular length as no stretch is needed there. Arms are still sewn with a zigzag as the sleeves are tight and they do need the stretch a zigzag stitch gives.

...and the back...good bum coverage!

Like my other recent Mandy's the hems are sewn at 1.5" - 2" - I really like the look of this "deeper hem".

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Pattern: Mandy Boat Tee by Tessuti
Size: One size fits...most
Modifications: lengthened by 9cm (I think it's a bit long but I never seem to make it shorter as I'm lazy and also indecisive), the sleeves/arms made bigger for me a sewing class I did at Tessuti.
Fabric: Viscose knit from The Remnant Warehouse
Changes for next time: might lop off a few cms at the hem, but probably not.

Two more Mandy Boat Tees

I had a VERY productive sewing weekend, turning out two (very wearable) Mandy Boat Tees. The fabric for both was initially bought to experiment with lengthening the Maria Denmark Kimono Tee into a dress - but then I got lazy and thought I'd go with the Christine Haynes Marianne Dress (which is A-line) and thus I didn't have enough fabric from my change of plans.

Sadly, after I washed this fabric I found that it had a hole right in the middle of it. Could be the fault of the manufacturer (or someone else along the way) or perhaps my washing machine got hungry? Either way this fabric is LOVELY and I stitched up the hole and it's now tucked away in the hem...like it doesn't exist. The hem and sleeve hems are quite wide (2" and 1" respectively) which I really like so I copied that across to my second weekend make. Like always, the pattern has been lengthened (by 9cm) and the arm hole lowered and about 1cm added to each side of the sleeve piece. The pattern is one size fits all - but if you have bigger upper arms you might need to adjust to accommodate.

Also, please let's take a moment to admire my AWESOME stripe matching. It's fiddly trying to lay out the fabric so that the stripes are cut properly and then to match them when pinning. I had to do a bit of lopping bits off the end of the front piece to get things lined up...but whatever, it looks good. Now.

...and, Mandy Boat Tee #2. The print on this fabric is really colourful though it's not quite as sturdy as the stripes (I've hung it up for a few days on a wooden hanger and think the neck has stretched out a bit...oops). I think it'll be a good piece as the weather warms up now that the end of winter is here.

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Pattern: Mandy Boat Tee by Tessuti
Size: One size fits...most
Modifications: lengthened by 9cm (I think it's a bit long), the sleeves/arms made bigger for me a sewing class I did at Tessuti.
Fabric: Viscose knit from Tessuti (here and here)
Changes for next time: might lop off a few cms at the hem

Floral Mandy Boat Tee

I've gone ahead and lengthened the sleeves of Tessuti's Mandy Boat Tee in order to make myself a more winter appropriate top (not that winter has really showed its face in Sydney yet...but surely it's coming)? 

The fabric is a very floral, bright, colorful, non-wintry, drapey ponti-like fabric from My Hung in Parramatta. It was $6.50/pm and I initially bought it for a Gabby Dress but somehow didn't buy enough.

After trying my other Mandy Boat Tee on I measured that I'd need an extra 13cm to make the sleeves full length -- allowing for a 2cm hem.  The sleeve length is pretty spot on which is great.

However, (there's always a "however" with my sewing) I've obviously put on weight as the sleeves are a bit tight where the top joins the sleeve; and if I do this again I need to make the sleeve wider the whole way down the arm as I don't want the sleeve to be so body hugging. I also need to take a bit away from the arm hole on both the back and front piece - maybe a 1cm on each. That extra 2cm will make things more comfortable for sure. 

After I finished sewing the top I popped it in the wash (as I do with most of my makes) and I gave the sleeves a goodstretch when wet and now they fit OK. I actually do this with a lot of my ponti garments, especially pants as they tend to loose length somewhere in the washing machine.  Bizarre.

I wore this top out today and it was pretty comfortable - though it does tend to slide backwards off my shoulders like everything does. Choke alert. Stretching out the sleeves when wet was a good idea as it's made the top wearable...it was heading to the Vinnie's pile but has been given a reprieve.

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Pattern: Mandy Boat Tee by Tessuti
Size: One size fits...most
Modifications: lengthened hem by 6cm and sleeves by 13cm, and the sleeves/arms have been made bigger for me a sewing class I did at Tessuti.
Fabric: Knit from My Hung in Parrmatta
Changes for next time: need to make the arm hole bigger (scoop out 1cm from bottom of front + back piece, made sleeve wider by 1cm on each side and make sleeve wider the whole way down to the wrist/elbow).

Mandy Boat Tee...as a jumper

A few weeks ago I toddled off to Tessuti in Chatswood for a class on sewing zips and facings. Great class BUT it was held upstairs and upstairs is home to all of their lovely knits. I kind of lost the plot when it came to installing the facings and ending patting all the gorgeous fabrics for quite some time. In the end I settled on this...a lovely, cozy Viscose Jersey that would be perfect for a top. A Mandy Boat Tee to be precise.

This is a very simple top to make but I umm'd and ahh'd for ages over whether or not to use clear elastic to stabilize the shoulder seams. The pattern doesn't call for it, but I thought as the fabric was quite heavy it might need it. Good idea, if only I had executed it properly...now I have some annoying elastic rubbing on my skin. Grr!

I lengthened the hem on this top as it's quite short on me otherwise - 6cm added. I think I could add an extra 1cm or 2cm though as my bum was quite "on show" when I wore this top to work with black ponti pants that were quite fitting. Not such a problem with jeans which are a bit looser...but I think the people are work sore my of my butt than they needed or wanted too. Whoops.

I finished the sleeve on this with a sleeve band as I think they look much neater than turning the sleeve under...which I always do totally wonky as I cannot seem to sew in a straight line. The wrong side of the fabric is also pretty cool and adds a neat little bit of contrast.

Pattern: Mandy Boat Tee by Tessuti
Size: One size fits...most
Modifications: lengthened by 6cm, clear elastic added at the shoulders, and the sleeves/arms made bigger for me a sewing class I did at Tessuti last year.
Fabric: Viscose knit from Tessuti
Changes for next time: might add a few cms to the hem; and possibly not add clear elastic at the shoulders depending on the fabric.

Yellow Stripy Mandy Boat Tee #2

My overlocker and I got together and whipped up this lovely, cozy Mandy Boat Tee using some fabric I picked up from The Fabric Cave last month.

The fabric was a little tricky to work with as it was quite stretched and the selvedges were nowhere near parallel. I spent about an hour crawling around on the floor trying to smooth out the fabric and line up the stripes...and I think I did a pretty good job *take that stripes* (just don't look too closely at the other side as things are a tad wonky over there).

With my first Mandy Boat Tee I lengthened it by 5"...probably a tad too long, so I just increased the hem on this by "two stripes worth", so about 3". Sadly, not quite long enough to cover my caboose in my favourite jeggings but if I can't see my butt jiggling about behind me sans long top then I can pretend it's not happening, right?

I'm also finding the neckline of my first Mandy Boat Tee a tad too high so I cut a small wedge out of the neckline this time around. Still a bit too high so I'll lower it more next time around (yes, there'll be a next time).

I made quite a wide hem (one stripes worth - loving the ease of measuring this "by the stripe") but stitched it down twice as I didn't want any bubbling.  I quite like the way this looks.

Things went a bit haywire with the sleeve hem as I was hurrying to finish the top so I could wear it out to coffee. I didn't stitch close enough to the edge to catch the sleeve hem down properly and the flappy edge was pretty annoying.

I already know that unpicking twin-needling is a bit of a pain (plus this fabric was prone to "fraying" and I didn't want to put a hole in it, so I just went around the hem a few times for some crazy "free style" stitching that I actually love.

I wore my new top out for coffee and I was loving myself sick the whole time! Despite being a tad too short in the butt region I felt really good in this top...it's slouchy, big and comfy and looks good with slim pants.  I so happy to be finally sewing things that I want to wear!

Go team Mel!