Sewing Jade: Combining the boat + ballet necklines
jade tee sewing pattern
Jade has two lovely neckline options, a higher “boat” neckline, and a lower “ballet” neckline, which has a subtle scooped shape in both front and back. So is it possible to combine them? Of course! For this tee, I combined the front boat neckline with the back ballet neckline, so it would have the scoop in back. Here’s how it looks on the hanger from the back:
jade tee sewing pattern
In the pattern, I’ve provided an optional facing for View A (boatneck), for exactly this purpose: so that you can combine the front from one view with the back from another, something that I think creates a lovely hybrid of the two necklines.
If you decide to combine them, you’ll need to cut one View A facing, and one View B facing, and follow the instructions for the View B neckline finish.
jade tee sewing pattern
jade tee sewing pattern
I like how soft this brushed poly fabric is. I’ve noticed that they (double brushed poly jerseys) seem to have more vertical stretch than horizontal stretch, but they’re still super stretchy, known as “4-way.” For this reason, although the stripes ran vertically, parallel to selvage, I ended up cutting it out on the cross grain because I wanted the stripes to run horizontally. Normally this is not something I would recommend, but in this case the 4-way stretch makes this possible.
One more pic, this time to show you how it looks when I wear it backwards (with the scoop in front)! Although the sleeve and armholes are drafted differently for front and back, with a super stretchy knit like this, you really can’t tell that it’s on backwards, can you?
jade tee sewing pattern
Finally, if you’re wondering how this fabric compares to the other Jades I’ve sewn, it is most similar in weight and stretch to the orange and yellow bamboo spandex tees, but with less sheen. The “brushed” property of this fabric gives it much more of a matte appearance. So despite also being stretchy and lightweight, this print does hide bumps and wrinkles much better than the yellow and orange Jades in the Sewing Jade: Let’s talk about fit post, probably also just due to having a busier print rather than a solid, I would think?
The Jade sewing pattern is available now in my shop!