There’s a new pattern from Pattern Union and this time it’s the Lulu Tee. I was a pattern tester for this one, so, in the interests of full disclosure, I got the pattern free but all opinions are my own.

There are two t-shirt patterns provided, a batwing tee, with an optional bottom band, and a raglan tee, which has slightly more shaping under the arms. Here is the line drawing of the different views, and I did suggest that they be labelled as it’s a bit tricky to work out which is which.

The pattern description from the website is as follows:

The Lulu Tee is a raglan/bat-wing style tee-shirt in cup sizes A – G. Featuring a high, wide neckline, binding along the arms and neckline, and buttons or snaps fastening the shoulder seams. The raglan style is more fitted through the bust and arms, while the bat-wing style is looser and has an optional waistband.

Pattern has options for cup sizes grouped as (A/B/C), (D/E), (F/G). Sizes 6 – 26.

I am highlighting both the batwing and the raglan styles. The red one is a size 10, so has much more ease.

I used buttons on the red one and made the spacing between them a little wider than suggested.

The tee-shirts have a centre back seam to maximise the fabric use. It can be cut on the fold, but I chose to utilise the seam so I could tell the front from the back and also so that I could use less fabric. 

Unsurprisingly, the Lulu Tee goes really well with other Pattern Union offerings. Here it is with the Phoebe Bib and Tucker. 

I also like it teamed with the Phoebe Flares. The red fabric is bamboo knit from Knitwit, here in WA. It has a lovely drape and wasn’t too difficult to sew, with just a small amount of rolling.

The second top is the batwing style and this one is a size six, so it is much more fitted, which I thought might be too much, but it seems ok.

I used snaps on this one and used the template provided for their placement. There are a lot of snaps! If I make another one I may space them out more.

The snaps mean that the neckline may be widened or narrowed. I often find that boatnecks are too wide for me, so this is a really useful feature.

This was a really quick and simple make. The arms and necks are bound and the binding patterns are exactly the right length, which makes life really easy. The pattern is well drafted and I think that both of mine look just like the line drawings. As stated earlier it has cup sizes, which is really useful for providing the right amount of ease around the bust. 

I can see more of these in my future. I’d like a winter version so I can wear it straight away so going for an archaeological dig in my stash to see what winter knits I might have. I’ve even tried the top on with a couple of jackets and my new zero waste jacket (soon to be blogged) fits over it beautifully.

The pattern is currently on sale at the Pattern Union website.