Cashmerette - Concord T-Shirt 2201

Cashmerette - Concord T-Shirt pattern Hack

A pattern hacked version of the classic T-Shirt

Meet the Concord, your new favorite tee! Fully customizable, this knit T-Shirt is a classic wardrobe staple that's designed for curves. Choose from three hem lengths (cropped, mid-length or long curved), three necklines (high, V-neck, or scoop), three sleeve lengths (short, medium, or long), two sleeve finishes (cuffed or hemmed), and optional sleeve tabs.

Designed with negative ease across the bust. Recommend fabrics Light to midweight knit fabric such as rayon, cotton/lycra or poly/lycra jersey, with at least 20% crosswise stretch. 

Sizes 0-16 or 12-32 with bust cup options C-H.

I made the size 22 G/H cup view B long sleeves with the high neckline. 

Sewing Bee Round 1

Sewing.patternreview have a Sewing Bee contest every year. In 2022 the round one theme was 'Hoodie with accents'. Participants have 1 week to design and complete their garment and write a review with pictures of them wearing it. 

I'm not a hoodie person so I didn't have any suitable hoodie patterns. I looked through the Cashmerette catalogue of patterns for a simple top I could hack. 

I went with the Concord T-Shirt because it had long sleeves and no bust dart. There is bust ease but I didn't want a seam at the bust to interfere with my design element. I downloaded the PDF version and went to work. 

I went with the size 22 because the Concord T-Shirt design has negative ease 

across the bust and I didn’t want my version to be too tight.

I traced off the front patten piece then drew on my design lines. 

I retraced each piece with the addition of seam allowance and grain lines. 

I colour coded each.

My inspiration came from Pinterest as you can see below. 

I drew the design lines onto the Concord front creating the curved contrast accent detail to suit the shape of the pattern. I curved the contrast insert around to the right shoulder more so I could make the opening in the centre front instead of off-centre like the original top. 

Top by Rosewe on Pinterest

I pinned out my pattern pieces carefully, the pattern pieces must be placed with the writing side up onto the right side of the fabric as each piece is cut only once and needs to face the correct way.

I was limited by what I had in my fabric stash. I did not have time to shop for fabric so I chose a firm knit in a stripe and a solid I have had for quite a while. I used the stripe for the hood, sleeves, shoulders and front curve and the solid grey for the front and back and the curve flap lining. I didn't have enough for a hood lining so I left it unlined. 

For my accents I went with a curved front panel flap that is attached at the inner curve seam and help in place at the outer curve by snaps. I also decided to add another curve at the waistline with an invisible zip pocket.

Curved Insert

Because the curve insert piece was cut from stretch fabric I had to interface all the edges to stop them stretching out when sewed. I cut strips of 1/2 inch black interfacing and ironed them to all the edges of all the front pieces. You can see this in the collage photo of the hoodie inside out.

I lined the curved insert with the grey plain fabric and understitched the seam allowance. 

I pressed it carefully so as not to distort it.

I didn’t overlock any of the front curved seams because I felt it would add to much bulk, so I just straight stitched them and let the interfacing stop the fraying.

Each snap is interfaced, The curved seem lines are also interfaced

Pattern Matching

This is not my favourite thing but I tried really hard to have the horizontal lines flow across the front. 

On the front I tried to make it look like I had used a raglan sleeve pattern by chopping the end of the shoulder diagonally. I cut the fabric so the stripes were horizontal across the body. I overlocked theses to the front panels. I added similar pieces to the back shoulders to continue the look from the front. 

The front pocket was a design addition I added after cutting out the fronts. Adding this slightly curved seam to the front right panel didn’t distort my design because I sewed it with a very small seam allowance

I drew the placement line on my original front pattern piece to work out the height of the pocket. I curved the left side of the seam up to follow the insert curve because this looked much better than a straight horizontal line. 

Curved pocket seam is sympathetic to the stripe curve

Invisible zip pocket

I went with an invisible zip because I didn't want to detract from the curved insert. I inserted the zip so when it is closed the zipper pull is close to the side seam and therefore less obvious. 

At this stage I hadn't even thought about the pocket bag so once the zip was in and the new seam was complete that became the next problem to solve. 

The new pocket seam line and the top of the curved insert formed a really nice curved wedge, and this wedge turned out to be a great way to insert a pocket bag without adding topstitching lines on the outside. 

I cut a piece of the stripe fabric, interfaced all the edges and pinned it to the back of the pocket. I stitched it to the top from the front by carefully sewing in the ditch of the existing seams.

I used the stripe for the pocket lining

pocket bag lining

Hoodie & Front Closure

I'm a very intuitive sewer, I don't plan every detail, even when I do have time, I just go with the flow and solve the problems as they crop up. I made the top up and then tackled the front opening.

The stripe contrast insert formed one side of the neck opening and the grey left front piece formed the other side. The left front is not lined so when I got to the stage of adding the hood I had to make a facing for this section of the neck so the hood could sit open and have a tidy edge. You can see the facing on the photos of the garment inside out.

The hood front neck seam is hidden by these facings and the rest of the hoods neck seam is out of sight when worn. 

I used the press fasteners to secure the contrast curve down. All the snaps work and the top ones hold the neck closed. I should have interfaced the inside of the stripe contrast fabric but I didn't. To fix this problem I had to stabilise the fabric behind the fasteners. I poked little squares of interfacing into the punched holes with tweezers, ironed it down and then did some stitching around the hole to stop the fabric stretch when the snaps are used.

The Hood

I used the hood from Kwik Sew pattern 2875. I cut it from the stripe fabric and chose to put the stripe on the outside to line up with the shoulder details.

The centre seam of the hood is overstitched flat

I constructed the rest of the garment then tried it on! I did take the top in at the hips and bust and sleeve. 

I made facings for the sleeve cuffs.

I used coverstitch to hem my top.

I love the fit and the look and I know I will wear this hoodie in the coming winter months.