I made my brother a garment and it fits! I'd tried to sew him a couple things in the past, but nothing has quite worked out yet for various reasons (fabric with no recovery, poor instructions). Third time's the charm!
I've been on the hunt for a men's raglan sleeved t-shirt and thought all of the samples and tester versions from the Wardrobe by Me Bram Raglan looked great, so I bought the pattern. It's got an assortment of sleeve lengths and two hem options. For my brother, I opted for long sleeves, because winter, as well as the curved hem, because I like it.
My brother has a bit of a, ahem, beer belly (well, maybe a butter and cream belly?). Although his chest measurement put him in a 2XL, his belly measurement was outside the pattern range.
I did some Googling and found two resources (from Jennifer Lauren and Colette) on doing a full belly adjustment for the front of the shirt. I followed these, using his adding 2 inches to the pattern piece (for a total of 4 additional inches), making sure to true up the side seam so it matched the back.
The fabric I chose is the Laguna cotton/lycra jersey in navy, from the Imagine Gnats shop. Laguna cotton is such a great, reliable fabric.
I am pretty happy with how it turned out! The fit is pretty good, I think. The neckline is ever so stretched out, so next time I might shorten the band a bit, and I might shorten the sleeves.
But the full belly adjustment worked fairly well (although do you think it swings out too much at the hem? Like it's too A-line?). I'm ready to try it out on other, more complicated patterns!
But the full belly adjustment worked fairly well (although do you think it swings out too much at the hem? Like it's too A-line?). I'm ready to try it out on other, more complicated patterns!