Shelly: FreeSewing's Shelly Shirt
About Shelly
Shelly is a raglan shirt, perfect for swimshirts and rashguards
- 🤯🧵🧵🧵🧵🧵( difficulty = 2/5 )
- 🏷️topsswimwear( 2 tags )
- 🪡hemstretchcurvedSeamraglanSleeve( 4 techniques )
- 📐Thrunic( designer )
- 🧑💻Thrunic( developer )
- 💡Sewing Instructions for Shelly
- ✂️Generate a bespoke sewing pattern for Shelly
- ❤️#FreeSewingShelly( Hashtag for social media )
- Linedrawing
- Measurements
- Design Options
- Design Parts
- Plugins used
Required Measurements
Optional Measurements
- Construction
- Hem width
Sets the hem allowance along the bottom of the body of the shirt, as a multiple of the seam allowance. - Sleeve hem
Sets the hem allowance of the hem along the end of the sleeves, as a multiple of the seam allowance.
- Hem width
- Fit
- Armpit ease
Gives more room in the armpit by shifting the sleeve down the body. - Chest ease
Controls how wide the shirt will be at your chest. - Neck position
Controls where the neck hole is placed on the shirt. - Neck ease
Controls how large the neck hole is. - Neckband length
Controls how long the neckband is, as a percentage of the circumference of the neckline. - Neckband width
Controls how wide the finished neckband will be, as a percentage of the neckline circumference. - Sleeve ease
Affects how wide the sleeve is at the armhole on all shirts, and has some affect on the width at the hem of short sleeved shirts. - Wrist ease
Affects how wide the end of the sleeve is on sleeves that extend past the biceps. The effect is greater on longer sleeves.
- Armpit ease
- Style
- Body length
Controls how long the shirt is. - Sleeve length
Controls the how long the sleeves of your shirt will be.
- Body length
- Advanced
- Hips ease
Controls how wide your shirt will be at the bottom hem. This option is only used if the straight sides option is disabled. - Raglan scoop length
Controls how far out from the armhole the raglan seam starts to scoop. - Raglan scoop depth
Controls how much extra material to place under the armpits. - Body shape
Controls how the side seam is curved. This option is ignored if the straight sides option is enabled. - Straight Sides
Forms a tubular shirt, which is a shirt where the hips and chest are the same width and connected by a straight seam.
- Hips ease
| ID | Description |
|---|---|
shelly.base | Base |
shelly.front | Front |
shelly.back | Back |
shelly.raglanSleeve | Sleeve |
shelly.neckband | Neckband |
| ID | Description |
|---|---|
@freesewing/plugin-bust | A FreeSewing plugin that helps with bust-adjusting menswear patterns |
Designer Notes
Shelly is my first design. It was born out of the need for shirts that can compress very tight (for sensory needs stemming from autism), and the lack of suitable ready made shirts. Undersized swim shirts are tight enough, but expose the belly and pinch in the armpits, so I set out to design a shirt that would be both comfortable and therapeutic.
Raglan sleeves are used to provide additional flexibility and mobility in the armpit, and are very important for very tight clothes.
That said, Shelly is a simple and versatile design capable of making knit tops over a wide range of eases, from tightly compressive compression shirts, to loose raglan tees. It makes a great first knit garment project, as it only uses five pieces of fabric cut from four pattern pieces, and features simple seams that can be entirely made with a serger/overlocker. It's also fairly tolerant of small errors in measuring/cutting/sewing due to the elastic nature of knits, especially swim fabric, and the lack of any fine features requiring too much attention to detail on Shelly.
The name is chosen because I like the beach and I like seashells.
Thrunic
What You Need
To make Shelly, you will need the following:
- Basic sewing supplies
- Between 0.5 - 2 meters (0.6 - 2.2 yards) of a suitable fabric, depending on
size and style (see Fabric options)
- A kids' short-sleeve rash guard can probably be made with 0.5 meters with fabric left over.
- A looser-fitting long-sleeved swim shirt or t-shirt for a tall adult will take closer to 2 meters.
- Two different colors or prints of fabric can be used (one for the sleeves, one for the bodice).
- (Optional) Ribbing fabric for the neck, if using less stretchy fabric.
- (Optional) Contrasting color thread, if making exposed seams.
Fabric Options
This pattern is designed to work with stretch/knit fabrics, particularly spandex.
For swim shirts, rash guards, compression shirts, athletic shirts, and other performance-oriented shirts, four-way stretch fabric is strongly recommended. For more casual raglan t-shirts, two-way stretch jersey should work fine.
For compression clothes and swimwear, a 20:80 ratio of nylon/polyester to spandex/elastane is recommended. More elastic fabrics allow for greater negative ease, will give better mobility, and will be more forgiving to measurement/design errors.
The raglan sleeves lend themselves well to using different colors/prints for the body and for the sleeves.
With swim fabric/spandex, it is recommended to make the neckband out of the same material used for the shirt. For less stretchy fabric, such as cotton jersey knit, ribbing is recommended.
Cutting Instructions
- Cut 1 front part on the fold
- Cut 1 back part on the fold
- Cut 2 sleeve parts
- Cut 1 neckband part on the fold