The Elusive Perfect T

December 10, 2024

There IS such a thing as a perfect T-shirt. It can be impossible to find but I know it’s out there. I know because I’ve owned one. It was absolute perfection. It was the right fit, the right length and had the right neck line. It had the best sleeves. It was made of the perfect fabric. I wore that shirt until it had holes under the arms and hung a little wonkier than it did in its younger years. It also got softer to touch and harder to let go of. It became an embarrassment to wear in public but I couldn’t part with it. I started hiding it under sweaters or wearing it to bed. After so much wear and so much laundering, there was barely enough left of it to use as a rag. But I cut up what was salvageable and then washed the toilet with it anyway. When I started to look for a replacement I started to realize what a unicorn that shirt really was. Any new ones to come into my closet were too stiff, too short, too long or made of the wrong material. The sleeves were too weird and the neckline was too chokey. I started to think that maybe the perfect T-shirt didn’t really exist. Thank goodness I owned one once upon a time. I knew it was possible.

The problem with the perfect T-shirt is that although everyone has a perfect T-shirt, no two perfect T-shirts are alike. Some people like them longer, or shorter; have a scoop neck or a crew neck; long sleeves or cap sleeves and so the list goes on and on. It could be years, if ever, before your list of attributes comes together again in a single shirt at the store. It’s also possible to have more than one version of the perfect T-shirt in your mind. One is hard enough to find, never mind two.

I decided it was time to stop waiting and just make a T-shirt that fit all of my requirements. My personal list is a scoop neck, cap sleeves, fitted but not tight and hemmed just above my hip. Under big sweaters in the winter, I like long sleeves. So, in the end, I needed two perfect T-shirts. Now that all of those preferences are recorded in a pattern, I can easily make more when those wear out. I never have to hope that this might be the season the store is stocking all of my requirements in a single shirt for sale.

I’ve made T-shirts for other people, too. Once there is a base pattern it’s easy to try new things. Out of one basic T-shirt with a regular hem, capped sleeves and a scoop neck we were able to make versions with curved hems, boat necks, long sleeves and flutter sleeves, all in a range of colours. The one thing they all had in common: they were perfect for her.