How to lengthen the Trinity Tee

So you have a tall slender child and want to adjust the Trinity Tee for a longer length. 

Even though the Trinity Tee is quite unique in shape, lengthening, 

or shortening, can be done pretty easily.

In this tutorial we are going to use the slash and spread method for lengthening.

Let's start with the back panel.

Measure down the back panel from the nape to the waist and draw a line across the width, perpendicular to the center back. (shown in blue)

Align the diagonal side of the front panel with the diagonal side of the back panel. Make a mark on the front panel where the line you made on the back panel touches. (circled in picture)

 Draw a line across the width of the front panel, perpendicular to the center fold line, where you made the mark.

These two lines you just made are your "slash" lines. Cut your pattern pieces across these lines.

Next you will spread your cut to the amount you wish to lengthen the pattern. It is important to keep the edges of your pattern aligned. To make this easier I like to draw lines on tracing paper to align my pieces.

Here I am lengthening the pattern by 6 cm. Draw a vertical line to help align your pattern pieces as they are spread. Anywhere on the line draw two lines perpendicular to the vertical line and 6cm apart from each other.

 Now lay your back panel pieces over the paper. Align center back with the vertical line and the edges you cut along the horizontal lines. Tape or glue the pattern pieces to the tracing paper to secure.

You will now need to redraw the diagonal side of your back panel. Draw a straight line from the underarm down to the upper corner near the hem (I have no idea what to call this!). (shown in red below)

Cut off the excess paper and viola! (cut along dashed line as shown in picture below)

You now have a new, longer, back panel. 

Now it is time to do the same thing to the front panel. This is where it may take a little trial and error because if you lengthen the front the same amount as the back it will be too long.

This will not do! I found that I needed to lengthen the front panel about 1cm less than the back panel, but this will vary from size to size.

So, for consistency's sake, let's go through lengthening the front panel.

Draw a vertical line on tracing paper. Then draw two horizontal lines, making sure they are perpendicular to the vertical line. The distance between the lines is the amount you wish to lengthen the front panel. In my case it is 5cm.

Now place your front panel over the paper with the center fold edge aligned along the vertical line drawn and the edges you cut along the horizontal lines drawn. Tape or glue the pattern pieces to the tracing paper to secure.

Re-draw the diagonal side just as you did with the back panel. (shown in red). Cut off the excess paper.

Compare the length of the diagonal sides on the front and back panels. If the front panel is too long you can make a fold along the spread to take up the length. It is important to keep the center fold line aligned or your panel will be misshapen. Draw a new diagonal line if needed. 

When the diagonal sides align properly it will look as it does below.

You can also lengthen the sleeves in the same manner. Keep in mind that the 3/4 and long sleeves will have a cuff in addition to the sleeve length. 

Measure the distance from the underarm to the wrist. Mark a line at the midway point. This should be just above the 3/4 sleeve edge. 

Cut the sleeve along this line. 

On a piece of tracing paper draw a vertical line and two horizontal lines as we did before. The distance between the horizontal lines is the amount you wish to lengthen the sleeve. Align your sleeve pieces along the lines you drew and secure them to the paper with tape or glue.

Re-draw the underarm seam staying true to the curve of the pattern piece. (shown in red)

Cut off the excess paper once again, and there you go! All done.

Even though the pattern shapes are a little crazy, lengthening is easy peasy!

Shortening the pattern can be done the same way, except you will overlap your pattern pieces instead of spreading them. See the example below.

But say your child is very tall and skinny but also has wide shoulders. Or maybe they have a wide chest but have narrow shoulders. Then blending between sizes is likely a better option for you. I hope to have a tutorial for blending sizes soon; as well as lots of other modifications. It will be fun! See you then :)

Trinity Tee pattern release

I am SO excited to have released my latest pattern: the Trinity Tee. 

From Start to finish this has been such a fun pattern. 

Before I get carried away telling you about it, let me give you the link to pattern in my Etsy Shop - HERE.

All week long you can save 20% on all patterns by using the code "Trinity" at checkout.

The Trinity Tee is a swing tee pattern with a hi-lo hem and gathers at the front shoulder line. 

But let's not forget about what makes it special - that triangular accent panel. The accent panel can be made with woven or knit fabrics. This expands the possibilities with this shirt exponentially! The shirt seen here in these pictures has a woven accent panel. 

The other thing that accent panel does is allow for no side seams. Yep, you heard right; no side seams! Pretty cool, huh?

Now that we are seeing the design of the shirt let's talk options. The different options really let you make this shirt your own. There are 3 sleeve lengths: short, three-quarter, and long. The three-quarter and long sleeves are finished with a cuff, but the short sleeve has a binding. The short sleeve binding, the neck binding, and the hem facing can all be made with either knit or woven fabrics. Additionally they can be sewn to be visible from the outside and invisible from the outside. The tutorial goes into detail on how to achieve each look. 

And let's not forget the zipper option! The tutorial will guide you through a really easy  cheater's method of sewing an exposed zipper. This method is ideal for showing off those fancy fashion zippers. In the picture below you can see I used a pretty lace zipper. But if you don't care for exposed zippers there is a note on how to sew a more traditional zipper too ;)

Let's take another look at all those options. Here are some pictures from my awesome testers.

 

I wish I could show you all the tester pictures, but I don't want your computer to crash from trying to load them all!

So....Maybe just one more; from me ;)

Thanks for checking it out! I hope you love this shirt as much as I do.

Hello - would you like to test the Trinity Tee pattern?

Oh, hello again. 

I accidentally took the last year off from blogging. I really do mean accidentally. 

The first part of the year I was completely immersed in making the Aberdeen Jacket pattern. Then I took a "short" break to be more present with my family. Then we began the whole house buying process and before I knew it the Holidays were here and I was saying goodbye to 2015. So, no, I don't have any "Best of 2015" posts to share. Instead, I hope to make 2016 the best! And to start the year right I am getting ready to release a new pattern - the Trinity Tee.

This top may look familiar to some of you; I've been working on it for a while now. In fact, it was formerly referred to as the Triforce Tee. You can see a couple of early versions here, here, and here. 

 The Trinity Tee pattern is a modern swing tee with a hi-lo hem, a front accent panel, and gathering at the front shoulder. It comes with three sleeve length options: short, 3/4, or long. And you can choose to make it from all knit fabric, or mix knit and woven. It has a size range from 12 month to 14 years.

So, whatchya think? Wanna test for me? I am looking for 2-3 testers for each size. Testing will begin Moday January 18th and run for 1 week. If you are interested and can complete on time please fill out the testing sign up form >HERE<.

This one is going to be fun! I am looking forward to it!