A reversible long sleeve T shirt

I have an ongoing love hate relationship with sewing contests.  I love that they push me to make things I might otherwise not have made, but I hate that I never win, and worse I quite often come away from them with a lowered self esteem.  I know in my mind that most of what I make probably doesn't appeal to a lot of people - that's one of the reasons I make after all - because I like different things to most people.  But every now and then I feel like a have to take a break from the sewing contests - allow myself to get back to being just me and being happy with that.

Anyway I've been on a contest break for a while now, but the other morning I woke up feeling like I'd like to take part again.  so I took myself off to the Pattern Review website to see what contests they're offering at the moment.

Bargainista Fashionista - not really my cup of tea. I don't have anything that I can copy off because I never actually look at ready to wear clothes.
The Upcycle Contest - nahhh don't really feel like upcycling at the moment.
That left the Reversible Garment Contest.

I've made a number of reversible garments in my life - I've always been interested in figuring out how to make something reversible, but given that the contest is already more than half over I decided that I would try and stick with something simple.

I decided that I would make a new T shirt.  I trawled through my fabric stash and found a thin cotton poly knit fabric in a plain grey and a cotton knit fabric remnant with a teal/black/green/pink paisley pattern that I used in this reversible collared shirt and this dress for my daughter.

The pattern I decided to use is one that I've been working on for a while now.  It started as this pattern for a shirt with exposed seams.  Then last fall I modified the pattern into a dress that I could wear as a cover up to the water park.  I never blogged that dress as the only photo I ever got of it was this elevator shot.

I extended the basic pattern down to dress length then added a bit of extra swing to it.

Then last month I started working on some new work out gear - yet to be blogged - and I took this pattern and cut it back to tunic length, but retained the extra sing so the shirt is fitted through the bust but with plenty of extra room around my waistline.

I ended up loving the pattern and decided I wanted to use it for this reversible shirt.

The exposed seam details would work great for a reversible shirt.

In order to make the shirt reversible I cut two pieces of each pattern piece - one frome each fabric and sewed the pieces together around all edges expect the neckline and cuffs.

The shirt was then sewn together with the pattern sides together and the the seams were opened on the grey side and top stitched down to make a feature.  The cuffs and neckline I cut out of the patterned fabric and finished them on both sides.

I really love the way this shirt turned out and it's been a staple in my wardrobe ever since I finished it.

 The fabrics work well as a reversible shirt - the grey is very thin and a shirt made from it by itself would be very clingy and not very flattering, by lining it with the sturdier patterned fabric it makes it much more wearable - and the extra grey layer on the patterned fabric adds some extra warmth to the shirt, which is always appreciated my my froggy self!