Did you know that black and white Nike sneakers
(affiliate link) are totally a thing? I recently noticed they were popping up all over the street style pages of Pinterest, so of course, I had to buy some. Don’t believe me? These are just a few of the hundreds of outfits that pop up on Pinterest after searching “black white nike outfit”:
Oddly enough, they do have a way of pulling a simple outfit together while keeping your feet nice and comfy. I have been wearing mine with everything from actual workout outfits to jeans and even skirts. The key is to wear them with invisible socks (which I clearly did not do here - ahem, purple socks) and either bare legs or skinny jeans/pants. This keeps them tres chic instead of frumpy sneaker mom.
Speaking of pulling an outfit together in a simple and comfortable way…check out this Union Street Tee! When I was pregnant, I started a bunch of these shirts and only recently completed them. Hopefully you can ignore the cat hair/baby spitup/rain droplets all over my outfit in these pics to see the awesomeness that is this shirt.
Oh and since I am already drowning myself in negativity, let’s also ignore the brassy hair. Not sure if that’s an actual problem I’m having or the result of my inability to use VSCO presets. I guess we’ll find out as time goes by since I don’t see myself making it to the salon anytime soon.
Baaaaack to the shirt. This sewing pattern by Adrianna of Hey June Handmade is SUCH a fabulous wardrobe staple. Like I said, I have made quite a few of them - six to be exact - and I wear one almost every day. True story. In fact, I realized just the other day that I needed to hurry up and photograph at least one of them since they are quickly falling victim to the daily rigors of life with an infant (ahem, milk stains).
(Quick note: I searched for the perfect camera/laptop bag for months, and I finally found it as shown above. It’s the Tenba 638-236 Photo/Laptop Bag in Plum (affiliate link)
, and it’s perfect! Not only does it hold both my 15″ Macbook Pro, but it also has a removable, padded divider for my camera body, four lenses and flash. I have traveled all over with it, and it’s super durable. Plus, it looks fabulous! Purple is the new black!)
Back to the tees.
These tees sew up fast and easy and are a great way to learn how to do V-necks. I feel like kind of an expert now that I’ve done so many of them. They do take practice to get juuuust right, but the end effect is so worth it. Adrianna explains the process very well through professional illustrations in the pattern tutorial.
The fit is similar to what you’d expect from a ready-to-wear brand, and the sizing is easy to customize since you choose which one to make by finished garment measurements, not body measurements. I chose a medium based on some of my RTW shirts, and it’s perfect for now as a semi-fitted top and later as a slouchier tee. My (currently ample) bust is roughly 36-38″ in these photos.
The fabric I used is a jersey knit purchased at Mood Fabrics in Manhattan.
I’m sure I’ll be using this pattern over and over to make lots of tees as my current set gets destroyed by small humans, and when I do, I’ll make a couple changes. First, I noticed that where my neckline bindings (are they bindings if they don’t actually bind anything?) join to the shirt, there’s a little bunching of the fabric. Next time, I will lengthen the neckline pieces slightly (I used the longer ones for less stretchy fabric already) to avoid this. A good steam iron has mostly gotten rid of them, but I’m going for perfection here, people! I don’t think this is a flaw in the pattern; it’s just a result of different knit fabrics having different recovery and stretch.
The other thing is that I might try a sloping shoulder adjustment as you can see I have a little bunching above the bust/under the arms in some of these photos. This is a problem I also have with RTW shirts, so I think it’s just me and my bad posture. I thought for a minute that maybe it was because of my nursing boobs, but I also have this problem with RTW shirts when I’m much smaller.
Have you sewn the Union St. Tee yet? Do you like sewing wardrobe basics as much as I do?
