Ellie & Mac Women's Ruched T

After the success of Simplicity 9102, I wanted to make a casual t-shirt.  I've made a lot of t-shirts since Covid Craziness started. I haven't owned this many since my college days. But let's be real, yoga pants and a cute top make for comfy work from home wear!

I bought the Ellie & Mac Women's Ruched Tee pattern on a whacky Wednesday sale for $1 several months ago (looks like it's on sale today for $1 too!) but I didn't print it out until recently. I've made a lot of Love Notions Basic t's and a couple of my Hot Pattern t's, but this one sat in my to-do pile. I had a really nice striped lycra rayon jersey from Cali Fabrics (this particular stripe isn't on their website but they have really nice quality fabrics to choose from!)

So let's talk about this pattern.  First off, I really like it and I won't hesitate to make another one. I love that it can be worn either way - the ruching can be in the front or back. I like that there are several different fit styles.  The overall construction of this pattern was good and I didn't have any fit issues.  

That being said, here are things to think about with this pattern:

• fabric choice - while I LOVE this striped fabric, the lycra curled like crazy and made this much harder to sew than it needed to be. Next time I make it, I'll use an ITY. That is in no way a reflection of the pattern, just something to keep in mind
• The neckline. - my fabric choice made using the instructions for the neckline impossible. Instead, I treated it like a binding, sewing the neckband to the wrong side, then folding it over to conceal the raw edge and topstitching it down. I'm 99% happy with the results and I can live with the smidge that I don't like. Should I use this type of fabric again (I won't!) I'll use FOE to encase the raw edge and call it a day. 
• The bands for the ruching - the pattern has you cut a strip of fabric 52" long and 1.5" wide. The pattern says you can use 2 but recommends one. I had no issue with my single strip but my fabric was very stretchy.  Whitney at TomKat Stitchery recently made this and used ribbon for hers. It looked really cute and I may try that with my next top. 
• This pattern is drafted for someone 5'4".  I completely missed this and I'm 5'9". I was concerned this top was going to be too short but it hit me just right. If I chose a less stretchy fabric next time, I'll need to add 2.5 inches. 

Overall this is a cute pattern is well worth the little extra work to get something not so basic!

Not to bad on my stripe matching! I'm not always a stickler for pattern matching, but  I'm happy that I was able to do so with this pattern