This tutorial will help you sew a t-shirt with a round neckline and classic, set-in sleeves. The sleeves can be long or short – both are sewn the same way. I used a spun silk jersey for this tutorial, but you could use any t-shirt fabric – cotton, rayon, linen – your choice.
 

First we’ll look at how to choose the right fabric and calculate how much you need. Since this tutorial is for beginners, we’ll go over some tricks for how to work with knit fabric on your home machine. We’ll also learn how to finish the neckline, one of the most misunderstood steps for those new to sewing. When we’re done, you’ll have a perfect, finished t-shirt that you can wear right away.
 

• Sewing machine – You can make a t-shirt on your home sewing machine, a serger isn’t necessary, not even a machine with an overlock stitch setting.
• Elastic sewing thread – Maraflex, Seraflex. Not to be confused with volume elastic thread! Maraflex (Gütermann) and Seraflex (Amann) are smooth and at first glance they look an awful lot like ordinary sewing thread. If you can't get your hands on elastic sewing thread, you can use regular thread (I’ll show you how).
• Ball point needle – There are special needles that have rounded tips for sewing with knits – ball point, stretch, and superstretch – usually sold in sizes 75 and 90. Use a size 75. Your regular, universal machine needle won’t work here, and size 90 needles are more for thicker knits such as romanit and punto.
• Sewing tools – Measuring tape, chalk, tailor’s shears, pins.
• Pattern – Draft your own or use a pre-made one.
• Fabric – Jersey knit, your choice of color and material.
   

You can make a t-shirt from practically any jersey knit of a suitable weight. Sweatshirt fabrics and heavier knits like punto are better for a cut with a looser fit.

Some good choices:

• Cotton jersey with or without elastane – Easy to sew, comes in lots of colors and prints.
• Rayon jersey – There are so many rayon jerseys to choose from but not all are right for new sewists. The finer knits can be tricky to work with. Try one that has a nice, full hand, something that feels like cotton jersey.
• Spun silk jersey – Fabulous, so wearable, and as easy to sew with as cotton jersey.
• Synthetic and functional (sports) jerseys – The same as for rayon, avoid very fine or very elastic jerseys if you are new to sewing.

You’ll find jersey in a range of bolt widths, from the usual 53–59" (135–150 cm) up to 71" (180 cm). How much fabric you’ll need depends on a combination of factors, including bolt width and your pattern.

At a common fabric width of 55" (140 cm) your front a back panel pieces should fit comfortably alongside each other with the sleeves below. For smaller sizes, you can lay one of the sleeves next to the front and back panels. You will still have to buy the same length of fabric, but you will end up with a nicer scrap at the end, and once you have two pieces like that you can put them together to make a block color tee.

Short sleeves can fit alongside the front and back panels. If you do it this way, don’t forget to buy 4" (10 cm) extra for the trim.
 

Remember to include seam allowance. Those fractions of an inch add up and it is always better to have a little leeway.

If you aren’t sure, bring your pattern along to the store and lay it out on the fabric to see how everything fits.
 

Very important: Lay all pieces facing the same direction along the grain. Knits are usually more elastic across the grain than they are along the grain, so if you were to lay the sleeves sideways (as in the figure on the left, below) they would stretch along their length but not so much around the arm. If you must do it this way, then add extra width the the sleeves to make up for the lack of elasticity. Do NOT do what you see in the figure on the right, no matter what. A t-shirt laid out this way would be totally unwearable.
 

For the t-shirt in this tutorial – a women’s size EU 40 (US 10, UK 14) with long sleeves – is used 140 cm spun silk jersey.
 

Knit fabrics have a stiffened edge running along each side (kind of like the selvage on woven ones) that tend to tug at the fabric and can have stains from the stiffening agent. Make your life easier, before you start tracing your pattern; trim it off.
 

Not to pick favorites, but every fabric has a right and wrong side. 

The right side is the face side, or front of the fabric.

Jersey is a single-knit fabric, so it is smooth on the right side and slightly rougher on the wrong side. If you are a knitter, this will look familiar. These zoomed photos of the right side (left) and wrong side (right) will give you an idea.

On the right side, you can see tiny loops arranged in vertical columns. On the wrong side there are wavy horizontal rows. Single-knit jersey also has a tendency to roll – crosswise edges roll towards the right side and lengthwise edges to the wrong side. I’m telling you now, there’s nothing you can do about it, any attempt to fix it with an iron will end in failure.

Some jerseys are hard to mark with chalk. It is usually easiest with a piece of tailor’s chalk or a chalk roller (I use one from Prym).

To save yourself a little time, trace a half pattern piece placed on the fold. Trace the sleeve opened out whole, with two layers of fabric, so you get both sleeves in one go.

Cut out the front and back panels and both sleeves. Don’t forget the seam allowance – for jersey 3/8" (1 cm) is enough. Add 1 1/8" (3 cm) at the bottom hem and at the end of the sleeve.

Copy all of the pattern markings over to the fabric (center of the sleeve head, waistline, etc.).

Before we start sewing, let’s have a quick look at how you sew with jersey knits.
 

In the garment industry, t-shirts are sewn with heavy-duty sergers, machines that can sew and finish an edge at the same time at top speed. Home sergers work pretty much the same way, so if you happen to own one – and you know how to use it – you’ll knock this project off quickly.

With a home sewing machine, there are three options. No matter which you choose, use a ball point needle (may be marked stretch or superstretch) and when you are sewing, don’t stretch the fabric, just guide it under the presser foot. If your machine is equipped with a walking foot, use that.

• Straight stitch with elastic thread
• Stretch stitch with regular thread
• Narrow zigzag stitch with regular thread

This is the preferred option. The thing that makes it possible is special elastic sewing thread, a relatively new product that lets you sew stretchy fabrics with a regular, straight stitch. You can’t do that with ordinary sewing thread – try it sometime – because when you stretch the fabric, with seam made with ordinary thread would break.

Elastic thread should be used for both the top thread and the bobbin. After threading the machine, try stitching a couple of lines on a scrap from an old t-shirt and adjust the tension. Set a stitch length of 2.5 to 3.

Some home sewing machines offer a stretch stitch. It looks kind of like a bolt of lightning and isn’t that too much wider than a straight stitch. Use regular universal sewing thread. But sew at a slow, steady pace – going too fast will snap the thread.

If you haven’t got elastic sewing thread and your machine doesn’t have a special stretch stitch setting, don’t despair. Just thread up your usual sewing thread and set your machine for a zigzag stitch with a width of 1–2 and a length of 2–3. Try various width-length combinations on a scrap of fabric to see what works best for your project. Make sure you get as much stretch as you need.

Now that we know how to lay down our seams, it’s time to look at finishing the cut edges in the seam allowance. Knits don’t fray, so you could really just leave it alone, especially if you’re sewing something to hang around in at home. But it’s worth knowing how to make your garment look finished inside and out.

If you have a serger, you can sew and finish your knit edges in one step. Or you can sew them on a regular machine and go back to finish the edges with the overlock on the serger. All you have to do is thread the loopers and one needle, or just the loopers. It will finish both seam allowances at once.

This may seem like an unnecessary, extra step. But it allows more precise handling of the pieces and makes it easier to go back and correct mistakes.

You can finish your edges with a classic zigzag stitch, separately or together, just like with a serger. Set a wide, loose stitch (width 5–7, length 3–4). If the stitches are too close together, the edge will curl.

Sewing the t-shirt is only three steps. Get the hang of the stitch you’re using and it will come right together.
 

Place the front and back panels right sides facing. Sew at the shoulder seam. Finish the edge and press the seam allowance to the back.

For a dress or a shirt made of a weave, you would ordinarily sew the side seams first and then add the sleeves, but for knits it’s different. The sleeves come first.

Lay the sleeve on the armhole right sides facing with the center of the sleeve head lined up to the shoulder seam. Sew on. I recommend sewing in two steps, starting at the shoulder and finishing under the arm for front and back. Be careful not to stretch the fabric when sewing!

Finish the edges and press into the sleeve.

Sew in two steps – first the side seam from the armhole down, then the sleeve seam from the armhole to the end. That will help keep the tee from twisting out of shape. In garment factories they do the whole thing at once, from bottom to cuff.

Didn’t I say it would be fast? You’re now holding a practically finished t-shirt that you can try on for size. Pin your cuffs and the bottom edge. Make sure the sleeves are long enough.

The neckline may seem a bit large. That’s okay, it will come together in the next step.

Finishing the neckline is the part that beginners struggle with the most. Approach it the same way you would anything that you are new at, practice on a scrap of fabric until you feel confident. That’s what master tailors do. Fabric always has something to teach us.

We’ll finish the neckline with a strip of jersey cut crosswise from the fabric.

My neck trim is pretty narrow, about half as wide what you usually see. I wouldn’t make it wider than a half inch (1–1.2 cm). Any wider and you should use a strip of ribbing instead.

The strip for the neckline trim should be shorter than the neckline length. When you sew it on, it will draw the neckline in slightly to keep it from gaping open.

So how do we calculate the length of the strip?

This part depends on the type of knit you’re working with. Thin, very elastic fabrics can stretch out. Ribbing, sold in strips, is also quite stretchy, so it should be cut pretty short. For more sturdy knits like cotton, modal, and rayon in heavier weights, you don’t need an especially short strip, because they don’t have as much stretch.

• Fine, very elastic knit: 85–90% of the neckline length
• Ribbing: 75% of the neckline length
• Regular, sturdy knit (classic t-shirt jersey): 90–95% of the neckline length

The only way to know how much you need is to try it out with a practice strip of your trim. Fold it in half lengthwise and mark a distance at least 4" (10 cm) long. Then stretch it just as you would when sewing the neck.

There are multiple ways of finishing the neckline. This is a popular and proven method.

Turn the tee inside out and arrange the neckline so that the shoulder seams are lined up (see photo below). Measure the neckline, don’t forget to multiply by two to get the full neckline length.

Adjust the neckline length by the percentage you got in the previous step. For spun silk jersey, which I used for this t-shirt, I estimated a coefficient of 0.95 (95% of the neckline length). My hands-on test confirmed 94%.

For the length of the strip, don’t forget to add seam allowance equal to the width of the strip at each end so that you can sew it into a ring.

In my example (using metric to make the math a little simpler ;-)

The neckline is 68 cm around. The trim strip will be 64 cm plus two seam allowances of 3 cm each (my strip is 3 cm wide). The total length of the trim strip is 70 cm.

Sew the strip into a loop. Join it with a diagonal seam so that you won’t have a thick bump in one place. It’s a neat trick. Here’s how you do it.
 

Fold the strip in half lengthwise, right side out, and press with an iron.

Mark points halfway and at the quarters on the loop. 

Place the loop on the neckline of the t-shirt, right sides facing.

Pin one halfway point at the center of the back of the neck and the other halfway point to the center front. If you have also marked the quarters, pin them at the corresponding spots on the neckline too. Note: The quarter points will not line up at the shoulder seams! The neckline is usually shorter in back than in front, so the quarter points fall somewhere at the front.

Hint: Try to place the seam on your loop so it lines up with a shoulder seam where it will be less noticeable.

Now for the fun part. Sew the trim to the neckline. Because the strip is shorter than the neckline, you need to stretch it slightly while sewing. That’s why we pinned it at four points. If you stretch it too much, the neckline will bunch up. Too little and the trim will be wavy. Estimating the correct tension takes a little practice. I recommend cutting a few practice pieces from your fabric and playing around on scraps to get a feel for it.

After sewing the neckline, turn the seam allowance down and press the trim in place. Topstitch all around close to the seam.

All we have to do now is finish up the ends of the sleeves and the bottom hem. This is easy. Just fold back to the wrong side and sew. There are three options here too:

1. Elastic thread finish
2. Stretch stitch finish
3. Double needle finish

If you have been sewing with elastic sewing thread this whole time, there's no reason to stop now. Fold the edge back and press it with an iron. You can finish the rough edge with a zigzag or overlock stitch or fold it under. Sew a topstitch all around.
 

If you are using ordinary sewing thread, you can use any kind of stretch stitch to finish your cuffs and hem. Your machine may even have more than one. Choose one with fairly long stitches so that the fabric won’t pucker up around the seam too much.
 

A double-needle stitch is naturally elastic (sewn with regular sewing thread) and looks professional. If your sewing machine gives you this option, consult the instructions for how to thread it. Less experienced sewists may struggle with lowering the tension on the bobbin thread (there’s a screw on the bobbin case – again, see your machine instructions) and with hitting the fold just right when sewing.

Your t-shirt is done! Pull out an iron and press the seams if you’d like, check for dangling threads, then pull it over your head and off you go.

These instructions will let you sew a whole drawerful of t-shirts in all the colors and styles you can come up with. Lengthen the pattern and you get a casual t-shirt dress in a classic straight cut or a kicky A-line. The instructions are always the same.

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