I am a huge fan of French Navy patterns after making The Stellan Tee and The Orla Dress (both FREE patterns!), so I was completely on board to buy this one. I recently made the Stellan Tee again (with some adjustments), and tried to make it look like the tees from Madewell or this tee from Abercrombie, but didn’t come as close as I was hoping.
After months of attempting to adjust patterns to get close enough, Sarah from French Navy released The Astair Tee, and I was ecstatic! I made a wearable muslin first out of the coral colored fabric and was pretty dang happy with it! So I raided my stash and remembered that I had leftover fabric from making my husband a t-shirt last year, but I didn’t have quite a yard. Other t-shirt patterns took up too much fabric, but not this one, and I barely squeeeeeezed another one out of this Robert Kaufman Dana Knit.
Let’s talk about adjustments! When I was tracing the pattern I automatically added 2″ at the lengthen line (#SewingTall). The pattern has a 2-3″ split hem, but I was planning to just hem it like normal (about 1″), so I could have gotten away with not lengthening (oh well). It would be so easy to mash this pattern with the Stellan Tee which has a curved hem and a higher neckline.
The pattern as either a cuff, or a 3/4″ sleeve, so I used the 3/4″ sleeve and cut it to be about 6″ long. The coral tee’s sleeves are hemmed at about 5/8″, and the black tee sleeve’s I made a little longer so that I could do the double cuff — I left the hem raw, and after cuffing twice and ironing, I just tacked the sleeve in 4 places (top, bottom, front, back).
Also on the black tee, I shortened the dolman sleeve by 1″ on the bodice piece so that the drop shoulder wasn’t as far down. I did that by folding the pattern piece, but that dropped the armscye and I had to stretch the sleeve a little (but you can’t tell). I think dropping the armscye actually made the fit a little better on me, so I will probably try doing that on future tees.
Above is a comparison of how the sleeves fit and look up close. You can see there is less bunching at the armpit on the black tee, and I think that’s because I (accidentally) lowered the armscye by about 1/2″. I LOVE the neckline on this pattern. It’s the perfect middle between crew and scoop. I actually used it on a Panama Tee Dress that I just made!
I also love that this pattern has the neckline reinforcement which I am FINALLY getting better at after doing it 8 times total now. You can see what it looks like here in my Instagram post.
I hope seeing a different view of this pattern has helped or inspired you in some way, and let me know if you have any questions! Happy Astair Tee sewing!
(Normally I would have more photos, but black is hard to photograph and my wearable muslin photos turned out better than the black tee’s photos …not that you probably care, but that’s why this post isn’t very picture heavy. 😉 Haha.)
I’ve made a few Stellan tees (love – French Navy just nails effortless style) and I have yet to try the neckline reinforcement. I took one look and thought nope, haha. This tee is lovely too! I’m so glad your accidental adjustment worked! Man, fitting the torso is weird.
I love French Navy patterns so much! I dig the effortless style too! This pattern is just as good as her others. The neckline reinforcement does take some practice, but you can’t suck at it forever if you keep trying! 😉
Ooh I love them both! What a happy little accident on the black one!
Thank you, Emily! I didn’t even have a long enough piece for the neckband on the black one, so it’s two pieces sewn together – but I didn’t care because I desperately wanted to use that fabric. I was so happy I was able to make it work!