GRAY RAGLAN // VINTAGE PATTERN

Pattern: Stretch & Sew 100 (more info below)
Size: 42
Fabric: Supersoft gray sweatshirt knit from Angel Textiles – 846 S. Maple Avenue

This sweatshirt has been a long time in the making... Sometimes making clothing for another person is difficult, mostly because they might have different expectations, or higher standards. When I make something for myself, little mistakes don't usually hamper my desire to wear my new garment... I just sort of blur my eyes when I look directly at the problem. Jeremy - not as much.

This is most likely the 5th or 6th iteration of this sweatshirt, and the first successful/worn out of the house version. Problems have stemmed from poor fabric selection, weird color choice, not stretchy enough fabrics, miscalculations on my part from the pattern, and even poorly applied neckbands.

Note to self: when applying a neckband in the flat (demonstrated well here), with raglan sleeves, make sure the seam is on one of the back shoulder seams - not the front.

But all previous problems aside, raglan sweatshirts are easier to make, in my opinion, than shirts with regular (non-raglan) sleeves. Raglans are essentially a bunch of straight lines sewn together. Because the construction is really straightforward, I thought I'd focus mainly on this vintage pattern.

The pattern is Stretch & Sew 100 and Jeremy found this on eBay or Etsy. According to a vintage patterns wiki:

"Stretch & Sew Pattern Company was founded by Ann Person sometime in the 1960s. Patterns featuring her technique for sewing stretchy fabric were very popular and patterns from Stretch & Sew are still published today."

The actual pattern pieces consist of one front/back and a sleeve. I traced off everything, in the largest size (sizes are 38-40-42). There's no size chart included, but he wears a 42 jacket size, so I went for it.

The instructions attempt to walk you through how to create a v-neck or a crew neck. To do this, you trace the front/back piece twice, and cut a lower neckline for what will become the front (I say attempt because they aren't super clear).

For a sweatshirt look, you do a series of adjustments to allow for cuffs and a hem band, which could include raising the hemline of the sleeves and front/back pieces. After you suss that out (aka guess if you're me), you make your own pattern pieces for the hem band and cuffs. I'll be completely honest - this was not easy for me the first time, and I found it all to be very confusing.

However, once I made one completed sweatshirt, it became easier to adjust to get the fit that he wanted (longer sleeves, longer torso, etc.) Despite changes, I still use the original pieces I traced, I just follow notes I left myself like "remove 1.5" from bottom of sleeve" and "remove 4.5" from hem." If I keep the sleeves and torso long, I can make t-shirts from the same pieces.

If you've made another raglan sleeve pattern, like the Grainline Linden Sweatshirt, then this pattern is super easy to make. If not, then I suggest making a raglan shirt with more complete pattern pieces and instructions before tackling this.

Also - Dixie has a great tutorial on how to make a v-neck t-shirt which would come in very handy if you want to make this raglan a v-neck.

Look how great these guys on the front look: