I've been interested in making my own basic cotton tees for a while now. I'm pretty happy with my RTW options (Land's End and J. Crew are my favorites) so it hasn't been at the top of the list. But last summer I came across some fantastic fabric at a garage sale. This Stretch & Sew kit was probably packaged in the 80s, but it included a yard and a half of high quality 100% cotton interlock and matching ribbing. Since sourcing the materials can sometimes be the hardest part of a project, I was lucky to find this.


When Sasha Secondopiano released her Basic Instinct T-Shirt pattern last fall, I thought it might be perfect to use with this kit. After printing and taping the PDF pattern, I compared it to my best-fitting RTW shirts and realized a problem straight away. The Basic Instinct tee is just not the fit that I was looking for. The shoulders are too broad, the sleeves too wide, the armhole too deep, and side seams too shaped. It's a beautifully drafted pattern, but not what I need for my TNT (Tried and True) everyday tee.

With 1.5yds of my bargain fabric, I could easily cut two shirts. And, not willing to write off the Basic Instinct pattern entirely, I decided to get some shirt sewing practice by making one for my mother! I stitched up the two shirts assembly-line fashion after a quick basted fitting. I reinforced the shoulder and neckline seam with twill tape. The topstitching on the outside looks great, but it's not so tidy on the inside. Good enough for my first attempt though!

Me in my self-drafted tee

The neck ribbing piece for the Basic Instinct Tee was drafted perfectly, but it took me two attempts to get the neckline lying nicely on my self-drafted version.  I wish I had a coverstitch machine to easily finish the hem, sleeves, and neckline, but my domestic machine with a twin needle and wooly nylon on the bobbin worked just fine. I'll have to see if it holds up in the wash.

I'm quite pleased with how our shirts turned out! I have plans to "Garment Dye" my version (pink is not my color) and I have already hacked the pattern for another project you'll see soon.

Mom in her Basic Instinct tee

And to finish off, a few final notes about the Basic Instinct pattern. It is more oversized than I expected. I normally wear a Small, but even the XS in this pattern was a bit bigger than I'd like for an everyday tee. The sizing seems more like the unisex shirts you might get from a sports team or a men's undershirt.  I cut a M for Mom, and you can see it falls right off her shoulders. She wears M/L in RTW. I see this as more of a utility shirt, at least for my personal style. This might be the nicest gardening shirt my mother will ever wear. The pattern is drafted beautifully and I like that you can choose to print only the size you want. For a free pattern, this is very well done and a good option if you want to try out sewing knits.