The test... Tessuti patterns, Mandy boat tee journey

Fell in love with this pic on pinterest, and followed the link down the rabbit hole to Tessuti in Australia.  It is chock full of inspiration. They started making patterns during my sewing hiatus, just be patient while I catch up. Do I really want to print out another pattern?  Not sure, let me think about that..... so I wandered the website and found a free pattern section.  The Mandy boat tee caught my eye.

It looks comfortable, not tailored by any means, but relaxed and nice for summer.

I printed out the pattern, it is a one size fits all (note: the 4x4 printing grid is not on the first page, you have to scroll down to find it, also their default is A4 paper which is common in Australia and the UK but not here, their option is to print on legal size, but I don't normally have that on hand).

There was this great piece of teal modal in the stash.

I measured the sleeve against some other long sleeved t-shirts in my wardrobe and it looked reasonable.

Remember to iron as you go, it makes a difference.

It's pretty straight forward, the neckline falls perfectly, and they show you a little trick to get it to fall flat against the shoulder.  That was a nice detail.

Here's the bad part.

The sleeve, which I measured, strangles my arm.  I would need another 1" so watch for that if you make it. I had sworn off garments without some shaping, but thought this would be ok for a casual tee, and find I'm distracted by it.  If it were made in a stretchier fabric, it would have been a non issue.  Sorry for the dark pics, I'm clearly not set up here yet.

Now it's decision time, do I take it apart and add some width to the sleeve, or do I drape it into a more traditional fitted tee?  I certainly want to wear it, the fabric is beautiful.

Stay tuned....