Me-Made May Week 2: Bring on the Jalie Raglan tops!

**First of all, WOW! So many great and helpful comments on my last two posts about budgeting for sewing. Thank you! It’s taking me some time to think through everyone’s advice, and then I’ll get replying and blogging about it again!**

Last week I wore 8 days of Espresso leggings… and this week I wore 7 raglan tops! I bought this Jalie pattern over the winter, and I’ve really enjoyed sewing up different versions. There’s something so fun about sewing raglan sleeves! 

My hands down favourites are the two sweater knit versions (pinky brown in the top row, and black and white with pink piping in the bottom row). Sweatshirts are mysteriously fashionable this year, and after wearing cardigans ALL the time for years, it’s surprisingly fun to just throw on a cosy shirt and be done! (Unfortunately I forgot how sweater knit shrinks up when it gets stretched with wear, so the sleeves and hem on both aren’t *quite* long enough. Nothing a long tank underneath ca’t fix though!)

I also really like wearing the striped-with-green-sleeves version in the top row. It’s a combo of stash fabric, leftovers from another project, and a chopped-up dollar store t-shirt. You can *also* see that at the sides of the shirt there are contrast strips of the same navy polkadot that I used for the neck. This was inspired by a RTW top I saw online, and makes for a fun detail. (I also tried to ruche the sides, but that didn’t really end up showing at all!) This top has good drape and is super comfy to wear. 

Less successful are the turquoise blue version (too drapey and shows every lump and bump) and the much-altered Cake Carmine that I ended up splicing onto a Jalie Raglan bodice! It’s much better than when I first blogged about it, but I think I’ll be giving this one away!

Looking at the outfits makes me wonder where my “ideal” hemline is - I’ve tried a lot of variations with this pattern!

• The navy tee, for example, is quite long but has a snug hemband that makes the shirt blouse over;


• The two sweater versions have a slightly high-low hemband;


• The two striped versions have a slight baseball hem;


• And the turquoise on is longer and has a more dramatic baseball hem.

What’s your vote: Straight, curved, or very curved hems for t-shirts? Which do you like on me, and which do you like on yourself? 

PS. Total keeners can read more about each outfit on Flickr! 

PPS. Tomorrow Elle pants week starts! Woot!