Vanessa Pouzet Wanted Tee

When I read that the theme for this week was New To Me, there were several indie patterns designers which came in to mind. I wanted to try the Appleton Dress by Cashmerette after receiving a very successful one as part of the Hand Made Dress Swap. However, the Wanted Tee by Vanessa Pouzet had been on my To Do List for much longer, so I prioritised this, which is unusually sensible for me. I have never made any of her patterns before but I’ve read such good things about it on Instagram that I purchased it. It’s sold as being very flattering on the old décolletage and really feminine so I went for it!

 Photo Credit: Vanessa Pouzet

Luckily for me, I work in a school, so it meant that I could ask one of our lovely French teachers to translate it for me. If you are interested I put these translations on my blog, as I couldn’t find them anywhere online. I also included a few tips which helped me! It’s quite a long post so I didn’t include it here but if you’re finding it tricky, please check it out. I don’t usually do tutorials but I got so stuck with it that I thought it might help others out.

I thought that this would be a quick and successful sew, everyone says how easy it is and the jersey I had chosen felt pretty thick and stable. I knew there would be quite a bit of precision involved and whilst I felt pretty comfortable with this, I chose a plain jersey so that I didn’t have to worry about pattern matching too much for my first try at it. I got this from Leeds market as part of Sew Up North and it was a bargain. I bought one and a half metres so that I would have a lot to play with.

The PDF is a breeze to put together and it has very few pieces. I cut them out precisely, made a start and that is pretty much where it started to go wrong. I couldn’t work the neckline out at all! I really tried to follow the translated instructions. I was getting increasingly frustrated when I looked around the internet and everyone was saying that it was a really easy top and they had just ‘whipped up another’, whilst I couldn’t get my head around it at all… Sometimes that is the way on my sewing journey, but I find these challenges is how I have improved over time so it’s not always a bad thing to be stuck! 

I sewed the neckline in place at the front and cut into the corners as it says but I couldn’t get it to line up at all. At this point, I have been reduced to a red faced maniac shouting ‘where do I stitch?!’ at French instructions. Watching his usually, highly- logical and sensible wife become a frantic wreck in front of him, my husband had a further route around the cavern that is the internet and found me this tutorial by Stitch My Style on Youtube, which helped a lot! 

Anyway I unpicked the front band and had to re-cut the front bodice because I had cut too deeply in to the corners (thank God I bought extra!) I later learnt that I had sewn along the fold line and not along the edge. Sometimes a little time away helps to return me to the calm, relaxed seamstress I imagine myself to be!

I began again, this time matching the band along the front and sewing at one centimetre along the top of the band and it came together. I took pictures of it as I did to help with the tutorial and this actually seemed to help my understanding of it.

Thank goodness – now that I have a completed T-shirt I can completely see why people were saying it’s easy. It does come together really quickly and I’m so proud of my neckline! Sewing with jersey is relatively new to me and I’m so pleased it worked out and helped me to learn. It doesn’t need much fabric either, which is great. 

Despite my problems, I wouldn’t be scared of trying another French pattern and I will definitely be trying another one of these. I might even brave a patterned fabric next time! 

It’s definitely made to be tucked in, it is too short to wear otherwise but I like it tucked in to my black skirt and I could probably pick out the green in some patterned skirts I have. I do think it’s very flattering so I would lengthen it next time I make it. It would be great in the long sleeve length for autumn/winter.