A Stitching Odyssey: Laurie Striped Tee...in animal print!

Like many of you, I was introduced to new indie pattern company - Named - back in August by Rachel, who always has her finger on the pulse with these kind of things. Designed by Finnish sisters Saara and Laura Huhta, the patterns are very sleek and modern - admittedly a departure from my usual style, but I found their online styling and colour choices irresistible.

Seriously lacking in quality sewing time at the moment, I opted to give the Laurie Striped Tee a go...because it looked nice and easy and because I can do with more casual tops in my wardrobe. I was particularly drawn to the horizontal tucks which create a striped effect and I had the perfect lightweight jersey in my stash. I bought a random 1.5m piece of it for about £1 from a guy on Leicester market!

A few things to note about Named patterns:

• They're only available as PDFs at the moment, in UK sizes 6 - 16. 
• Each PDF comes in just two sizes (6 & 8 / 10 & 12 / 14 & 16), so chose wisely.
• They're a little like Burda patterns in the sense that pattern pieces are overlapped and must be traced. This is where having only two sizes per PDF, despite being restrictive in some ways, makes life a lot easier. It also saves on printing paper. 
• They're delightfully easy to assemble once printed, with less pages than usual and handy page numbers on the bottom right hand side of each sheet.
• They only come with written instructions, which are rather basic. This could be a hindrance to less confident stitchers, even when attempting a simple pattern like this one.

Fortunately for me, I'm relatively experienced in terms of sewing with knits, so I found the Laurie Striped Tee a breeze to sew up. For the tucks I snipped a notch either side of each line and then used a ruler to join them up with a marker pen on the wrong side of the fabric. The neckline is finished with a neat band and the sleeves and hem are just turned under and stitched. I must say though, that this method for finishing sleeves in jersey always results in them rolling up for me, so I much prefer sleeve bands.

I can't speak for other Named patterns, but this one has a fair bit of ease as it's not meant to be a fitted T-shirt. I made mine up in a UK 12, pinched a couple of centimetres out of the shoulder width and shortened the length by a couple of inches. I really like the result as it's comfortable and easy to wear both with jeans and skirts - seen here in an unlikely, but pleasant pairing with my first Miette skirt. Next time though, I think I'll lower the neckline a bit and make it up in a UK 10 instead.

Have you tried your hand at any Named patterns yet? If not, are any on your wishlist? I certainly have my eye on quite a few more...