This summer, I came across a tee-shirt that my daughter had purchased from a Target store in Iowa. I was intrigued by the method of construction and took several photos of the tee-shirt, both inside and out, so that I could figure it out when I got back home and didn't have the garment with me to examine.
Well, this is what I found. The front was lined with another knit, but the back was a single layer. Perhaps this is done to beef up a thin knit, but I think the main reason would be to give a dressier look to the tee-shirt. The front can be clean-finished without any trim or stitching. One obvious place to use this technique would be with a lacy or sheer fabric; you could line the front only to make your top opaque.
You can do this to any tee-shirt style pattern. Cut the front twice, once in the face fabric and a second time, in a lighter fabric or bathing suit lining if you can find that. This comes in white and natural and would be an ideal fabric for this use.
Trim 1/8" from the neck edge of the lining fabric only. Now place the lining and front right sides together and sew the neck edge only with a scant 1/4" seam.
Then press the seam allowances towards the lining and understitch. Understitching is a line of straight stitching (or narrow zigzag if you prefer) which holds the seam allowances to the facing layer, in this case the lining. It is done very close to your first seam. This finishes the front of the shirt.
Understitching the seam allowances to the lining layer
The inside of the front with the lining in place
For the back of the shirt, cut a piece of the shirt fabric on the cross-grain, about 1 1/2" wide and 2" longer than the length of the back neckline. You will bind the back neckline with this piece. Lay it on the back neck, right sides together and sew with the binding uppermost. Be sure to extend the binding beyond the neck edge on both sides by about 1". Pull it slightly as you sew, so that it cups and sew it to the neck edge in a narrow 3/8" seam. Be sure to keep your seam allowance even as this will determine the finished look of the bound edge. Now wrap the binding over the seam allowance to the inside and stitch it in place, using stitch in the ditch. Trim off the excess binding on the inside. It won't ravel, so you can cut it off with confidence.
Now lay the back of the shirt flat and trim off the ends of the binding, making sure that you cut them in line with the original shoulder line of the back. It is important to cut these on the angle of the shoulder seam; otherwise your shoulder edges won't line up.
Now place the back of the shirt right sides together with the front of the shirt, taking care to move the front lining out of the way. Match up the shoulder seams. It is important to match the neck edge where your stitching line is, not where the cut edges meet. Don't struggle to match the cut edges, because they will be pointing in opposite directions. The edge of your back neck must be exactly on the edge of the front neck on the seamline of the shoulder. Doing this will ensure that your neck edge will be a nice circle, without a little jag where the front and back necks meet.
Once you have sewn the shoulder seam, take the front lining and bring it back over the shoulder seam, so that it is on the back of the shirt. If you have used Margaret Islander's techniques for wrapping a collar and cuffs, you will recognize that this is a variation of the "burrito" technique. Be sure that the lining is snug at the neck edge. Pin in place and turn your seam over so that you can see your first line of stitching on the shoulder seam. Sew on this side, exactly right on top of your previous stitching line. Trim the seam if necessary and trim out some of the bulk at the neck edge, taking care not to snip into the shirt.
This part was very hard to draw, but I have made a feeble attempt at it.
Now pull the lining back over to the front of the shirt. This will turn the shoulder seam inside between the shirt front and the lining. The seam will be facing the front of the shirt and will be entirely hidden. Now smooth out the lining and pin it in place to the front along the side seams and at the hem. Continue constructing your shirt as per directions, treating the front and lining as one piece of fabric.
The lining will be stitched into all the seams from now on and the hem will be doubled. You may need to trim off a little bit of the lining at the bottom so that it doesn't scoot up above the hemline on the inside.
I really like this technique and figured it out after thinking long and hard about that tee-shirt. Not an expensive shirt by any means, but a professional finish in my opinion. This technique of doubling the fronts of a simple shirt will make a common tee-shirt look a little dressier. If your fabric is a little skimpy, it will beef it up and give it more body. More "oomph" to your fabric always looks more expensive. And this is a wonderful way to make a sheer or see-through shirt more opaque so that you feel more comfortable when wearing it.
Copyright protected, October 2003, Julie Culshaw
Any sewing questions? I would be happy to try and answer them: you can email me at mail@timmelfabrics.com