I’m not one to shy away from stopping traffic kind of colours… and with my current (and hopefully healthy!) obsession with the colour orange, it’s no surprise this bold knit fabric found it’s way into my online shopping cart.

The 95% organic cotton (certified) / 5% elastane fabric is from a Finnish company called Nosh. The quality and designs (lots of stripes) really appeal to me and since finishing this top a couple of weeks ago some more Nosh fabric has found it’s way to my house.  I seem to have re-caught the sewing (and buying) knits bug!

Let’s talk about the pattern.  It’s Tessuti’s free Mandy Boat Tee and I love it.  The pattern was released couple of weeks after Grainline’s Hemlock (another free pattern) and as I’d already made a Hemlock I thought I didn’t need this pattern in my life.  How wrong was I?  I actually like this silhouette on me more.  In my opinion, the shorter and firmer fitting sleeves balance out the boxy body nicely.

Since my early days of sewing knits, I’ve been applying fusible stay tape to knit necklines and using Jorth’s neckline binding tutorial to create perfect (or near perfect) necklines.  The instructions for the Mandy Boat Tee, which I might add are very thorough for a free pattern, suggest you fold over the neckline and stitch in place with a twin needle.  No stay tape, no binding, no overlocking.  It would be fair to say this pushed me out of my comfort zone.  But thanks to reassuring text or two from Leith, I gave it a red hot go and it worked a treat.

Whenever I embarked on a new-to-me pattern I undertake an internet search with ‘insert pattern name’ and images.  For me a picture tells a thousand words.  The great thing about this particular search as there were several of my online and in-real-life sewing buddies smiling at me.  I eagerly studied the photos and read the reviews from Amanda, Amy, Elizabeth, Helen, Jillian, Leith and Melanie.  The visuals and the reviews lead me to make the following two changes to this one size fits all pattern:

• Removed a total of 1″ (2.5cm) from both the centre front and back to narrow the neckline and reduce the width
• Removed 2″ (5cm) from the hemline

Another Mandy has already been made and it had an outing on Friday night to see the movie Dior and I (which was fabulous if you are wondering) with some lovely online sewing friends.  More information on that Mandy after Easter.

Pattern:  Tessuti’s Mandy Boat Tee [free pattern]
Size:  One Size
Fabric:  95% organic cotton (certified) / 5% elastane fabric is from a Finnish company called Nosh purchased from Crafty Mamas.
Alterations:  Removed a total of 1″ (2.5cm) from both the centre front and back to narrow the neckline and reduce the width.  The top was shortened by 2″ (5cm) at the hem.
Accessories:   Scarf from Scarlet Jones & shoes purchased at Gorman.