Knit Tunics: I'm Collecting 'Em

And here's a quick one! Another Butterick 5954, this time the un-crossed-over version. Basically a long roomy t-shirt. I need, like, about 70 of these.

Side view, showing how the hem is longer in back.

And the back view, showing all kinds of imperfections in pattern alignment/matching/sleeve fit, but my God, it is a t-shirt. What I would like for you to notice is that the center back seam allows for a lot of flare over the booty without a lot of looseness above the waist. In fact, the pattern has so very much flare that I took bunches of it out (four inches out of the center back seam at the hem, and another inch on either side seam).

I chose not to use a cowl neck on this top so that I can wear scarves with it and layer it. For the cleanest neck finish, I used a technique which is included on a few patterns I own. For this technique, you apply a neck binding in the standard way, but then you understitch the seam allowances to the binding and turn the binding completely to the wrong side. The binding is then topstitched in place close to the folded edge.

Even though this fabric, an ITY knit I just received from FabricMart, is not very sheer, I still thought the dots might show through if I used the same fabric for the neck binding. I had a little piece of white lycra knit left over from my Halloween costume, which has the additional attribute of being stretchier than the fashion fabric.

This binding technique should really be used more often, because it looks neat and it is very durable. It puts a whopping five layers of fabric into the neck edge, so it is not good for bulky or thick fabrics.

I used a narrow band to finish the cuffs. The lower edge was tricky to hem (stitches were skipping badly), so I had to use some strips of very lightweight knit fusible interfacing to stabilize and fuse the hem into place before topstitching with a twin needle.

Only 69 to go--good thing they are quick!