I’ve just sewn a lovely trio of nursing / breastfeeding tops using Christine Jonson’s Base Wear Two tee as a base. I’ll share here the instructions for doing this yourself.
You can start with any basic tee shirt pattern. Though when you see the photos of the finished tee, I think you’ll understand why I love this one. It’s very shapely and fits like a dream. It’s hands down the very best fitting tee shirt pattern I’ve ever used.I go back to it again and again.
I made no alterations to this tee (other than the breastfeeding over lay and openings.) My nursing bustline is about a 34 C.
First, I traced a copy of the front of the tee. Measuring down from my shoulder, over my bust points (yes those!) and under my bra band I took a measurement and added about 1- 1/2″ (this was 14″ on me). I drew a line across the tee at this same measurement on the pattern. This is the empire overlay before hem allowances. Hold it up to yourself to see if you like the positioning of this nursing overlay before you do the next step.
Next, I traced THAT pattern piece adding 1″ for hem allowances (1/2″ folded). Then, I laid the full piece over the short piece and drew curved low armholes on that top full piece, stopping 1″ from the armseye opening at the shoulder seam and 1″ from the empire finished hem line (you’ll be using the line you first drew as this finished hemline.) This long low armhole is the nursing opening on the underlay. If you have any RTW nursing tops with empire seams this is mainly how it’s done.You can use a french curve to draw this opening smoothly, or draw it freehand if you wish.
Then, onto construction. I finished the bottom of the nursing empire opening by folding, pressing and stitching with a stretch straight stitch (a twin needle would also work here). I finished the open edge of the nursing opening with a serger edge. It’s not necessary to finish this if you’re using a knit, I just like the stability of this if I have a slightly less snappy recovery knit, a softer knit.
I then laid the empire overlay right side to wrong side of the tee. Yes, this sounds wrong. But go ahead, pin the front neckline and flip the overlay over the top of the tee and see what I mean. You should have both right sides facing out when you flip. This completely seals in the neckline seam so it’s finished.
Then I basted the empire edges down over the tee at the sideseams (it overlaps about an inch). Now, I’m basically starting at this point to construct the tee exactly as it’s supposed to in whatever pattern you’ve selected. With one small variation. When you sew the shoulder seams line up the shoulder / armseye opening edges. You will have the inner neckline edge sticking out about 5/8″. This is CORRECT! You will fold this edge, press and topstitch later in construction.
Construct the tee as shown in your instructions for the tee pattern. When you get to that back neckline, carefully fold over the neckline (I use a seam a steam strip to hold my pressed back neckline in place before sewing the hem) enclosing the raw edge of the top shoulder seam left over from sewing the front. Voila! You can topstitch the front if you desire, but it’s not necessary.
Hem the edges of the sleeves and bottom hem. Done! A simple nursing / breastfeeding friendly tee shirt. And even more important for you mamas that babywear – this one’s sling and carrier compatible. No yanking up the tail of your tee through the sling to nurse. The dress form photo shows the nursing opening in action.
I made these all in black and white knits so I could keep the same thread in my machine and serger and production-line sewed them with my son on my back in my Ergo carrier. He’s 8 months old.
I also whipped up a straight skirt from the same pattern in a black and red print (it does not match the tees, but I have other tops that are solid colors). And I whipped up a nursing friendly strapless top/skirt that I’ll post about after this one that is loosely based on this skirt – it’s a big rectangle that wraps that has curved hems.