For the 15th post in my  series, the letter O, I chose an Ottobre design pattern. Ottobre design is a Finnish sewing magazine, with traceable patterns included in each issue. The magazine is printed in Finnish, English, German, French, Dutch, and Swedish. They also publish a separate children’s pattern magazine. Ottobre is available as a subscription here. I don’t actually have a subscription to Ottobre though, fellow Denver Sews blogger Jamie gave me the Autumn/Winter 2013 issue at a Denver Sewing Collective meet-up. Thanks Jamie!

Of the 23 patterns included in the Autumn/Winter 2013 issue, I decided to sew the “Monday Basic Raglan T-shirt”. The gorgeous full page shot of this top looks really well-fitting and cute on the magazine model. I immediately thought of Jill’s quest to sew the perfect T. I thought I’d find out if this Ottobre top could be that perfectly fitting T-shirt since this pattern was one that Jill hadn’t tried. The only problem? I really dislike tracing patterns and adding my own seam allowances. Yup, that’s why I don’t have a subscription to Ottobre, even though I love their design asethetic.

The Raglan T can also be made as a dress, has only 4 pattern pieces and is simple to sew. The only difference (other than length) between the T and dress is the T has a ribbed neck binding and the dress a neckline facing. Since I didn’t have any ribbing for the binding I tried using the facing instead. But my knit fabric had so little stretch the facing ended up being way too short. I searched my fabric stash for a stretchy knit in a complimentary color with no luck, then I had a brilliant idea! I had several t-shirts in my refashion stash so I decided to remove the neck binding from one and reattach it to my Ottobre T. Success!

Overall I like this T, even though it has raglan sleeves and my design books recommend set-in sleeves for my square shoulders. I went down one size (as opposed to choosing the size that actually matches my measurements), but that’s my new normal with commercial patterns. The fit is pretty good, but I don’t think the “Monday Basic Raglan T-shirt” qualifies as the perfect T. Jill, you’re right, finding the perfect fitting T is surprisingly difficult!