No Sisters, No Daughters

I live in a boy world. Always have. I have two brothers and two sons. The only close female relative that I have is the one required by nature -- a mom. I always thought of myself as a bit of a tomboy, so I was surprised when a friend mentioned that I was such a "girly-girl" in spite of my male surroundings. Her comment made me start to notice. Somewhere between being determined not to let my older brothers get the better of me and raising my sons into fine young men, I've adopted all the trappings of femininity. It's not that I mind, it's just that I didn't notice it happen.

I hate T-shits. I won't wear them if I can avoid them. I hate two things about them: the choking necklines and the boy sleeves.

Starting with a standard T-shirt, I lowered the neckline and made girl sleeves. I didn't have a pattern to follow, so I just hacked the sleeves off. I cut the T-shirt body along the curve of my body to make an armscye. Then I just cut the sleeve to look like a fitted sleeve. I left the underarm seam and hem and basted the sleeve into the armscye in the round. I needed to be more daring, so I unbasted and took off some more fabric, making a more pronounced curve between the sleeve cap and underarm seam.

The picture makes the sleeves look crooked, but I ran upstairs and tried the T-shirt on in a panic, and it's just the picture, not the shirt. I'd take another picture, but I'd rather sew, so I'll leave it at that.

For the neckline, I removed the trim by unpicking the seam, cut the rib in half longways, then sewed two of the short ends together. I measured how much I'd need, cut it, and sewed the other two short ends together. I folded it in half longways, pressed, and sewed it to the new, lowered neckline. Then I top stitched it to the seam allowance. The rib trim is now half the width of the original, but lowering the neckline created the need for a longer length, which I got by cutting it in half.

Ha! No one around here ever borrows my clothes. My dastardly plan is working!