V neck tutorial tested on me and the kids!

Today is another of my regular posts on the Oliver + S blog where I tinker around with their patterns. Click on the image below to go to the Oliver + S blog to learn how I converted a circular neckband to a V neck for both the Metro T-shirt and the School Bus T-shirts. Or hang around here for pics of the kids and me.

Straight up I'm going to confess that I'm not actually much of a V neck fan. But when there was discussion on the Oliver + S forum about how it could be done, I became intrigued by the question and decided it was a problem I wanted to solve...

I figured I could be happy with a V neck if it wasn't too high. I was wearing my relatively risqué Camas blouse at the time and decided that a V that was in line with my armpits would feel more like a blouse than a dorky t-shirt. From then on I was sold on the idea.

I love the way the Metro T-shirt fits me and I can't have too many long sleeved T-shirts. If a V neck made this one a little different from the others that would be a good thing. The fabric is a relatively thick knit, not quite a ponte, but not far off. My T-shirt is a straight size XL and is now my fourth version of this pattern. Needless to say, I love it.

But before I cut into so much fabric I figured I'd experiment with something smaller. So P was first in line for a V neck T-shirt. His is the School Bus T-shirt, which is essentially the kid's version of the Metro T-shirt. I thought about how to create the vertical seam in the neckband without needing to measure angles and I think it worked well regardless of how acute the V angle was each time. Then, to attach the neckband to the T-shirt involves sewing two very opposing angles to each other. Not too dissimilar to a sleeve placket, only with a little bit extra awkward.

I'm acutely aware that I am a self taught experimenter when it comes to things like this. I intentionally don't search for other online tutorials as then I would feel like I'm presenting someone else's work as my own. But I'm also mindful that I don't really know what I'm doing. My solution is not necessarily the best solution, and for this tutorial I did shoot an email to Liesl to check that I wasn't going about it all wrong. She was supportive and so I plunged on.



P's T-shirt is size 6 with an arbitrary 2 inches added to hem and sleeve length in order to finish each on a dark band of the stripe, and account for his monkey arms.

If only I'd thought to bring the apex of the V down to meet the dark stripe too. Just a half inch lower would have looked so much neater. I cut the neckband a bit wider (about 3/8 of an inch?) than the pattern called for to make my first time a bit easier. It's not perfect, there's a little blip on one side but it wasn't bad for a first effort. I added some twin needle top stitching in orange, just for a bit of extra colour.

Even though it could have been positioned on the stripe better, I do think his is the one with the best "depth of V" of the lot.

Yep, there's another coming.... I knew mine would have to be all in one dull-ish colour in order for me to ever wear it and that wouldn't make for a good photo tutorial. So I made a third with some more photogenic colours. This time for A:

Of course, it's when you photograph something that you don't do your best work, right?! Well, actually, there's nothing wrong with the V neck itself, it's just that I cut it too deep. Lesson learned for the tutorial. What's "cheeky" deep for a grown up is just plain weird on a kid.

But a 10cm strip of stretch lace from Spotlight handstitched to the inside of the neckband seam is a great save. Now that it's there I really quite like it as a little feature. One of those happy accidents in sewing perhaps.

Hers is the School Bus T-shirt in a straight size 4. Note for next time: I could probably start adding a little bit of extra body length for her too.

Trying to get a group photo to celebrate our V necks was a challenge.....

P thought he was hilarious and then there was no way little sister wasn't going to join in with that gag...

V necks, love and peace to all!