Raglan Sleeve Shirt with Neckline darts

Having spent quite a bit of time creating a new sloper I decided I would like to try modifying it into a raglan sleeve sloper as well.

I looked for some tutorials to figure out how to do this but couldn't really find exactly what I wanted so I just made it up as I went along.

After tracing out my pattern pieces again, I took my front and back pattern pieces and drew on them where I thought the raglan lines would go.  I got it right on the front, but the back didn't end up perfect, probably because I was trying to incorporate the raglan line into the back neck dart.  I would like, on next attempt, to move that back seam across by about and inch. 

I cut my pattern along the raglan lines, then I had to figure out how to add the shoulder pieces to the sleeve piece.  The back piece was actually really easy and I was almost able to stick it directly onto the top of the sleeve, but it took a bit of playing to get the front piece at the right angle.

The final pattern modification I did was to lower the center front point by 3" and create a V neck, then rotate the arm hole dart around to the center neckline - just for something a bit different.  The dart starts right at the V point. 

 Again I ignored the under bust dart for a knit shirt and just added some extra shaping to the side seams after basting it all together, just to get a slightly nicer fit. 

I then made a bit of a blunder.  As I was using a woven sloper but wanted to use a knit fabric I decided that as a short cut to removing width for the knit, then adding seam allowance I would just use the pattern as is.  I forgot that with the raglan sleeves this takes out vertical length as well as width, especially across the shoulders.  Next time I make this I need to go back and add the seam allowance to the raglan seams to get a better fit.

                                  

Now to make up the pattern and test it out.  I didn't want to waste any good fabric so I used up the remainder of the denim blue sweater knit from my last funnel neck shirt.  I didn't quite have enough for the entire shirt so went through my scraps drawers and found a black sweater knit that I could use as the sleeves.  Probably not the best choice as it didn't have enough stretch compared to the blue fabric and with the blunder with the seam allowances this makes this shirt really quite tight  across the shoulders.

I finished the neckline of the shirt with a black ribbed neck band.  When I tried on the shirt without the neckband the front neckline seemed really open so I cut the neckband a smidge shorter than I would normally, but I think I got it a bit too short as the neckline is now really high.

Overall - not my best make.  Slightly tight across the shoulder and around the neckline, but still entirely wearable. Just need to make a few modifications to the pattern for next time.

1.  Move the back raglan seams in by about 1" at the neckline tapering back to the armhole.

2. Add seam allowances to the raglan seams

3. Cut neckband a bit longer

But otherwise I think it will be a good pattern.