This is Jalie’s 3881 Rose sewing pattern. It’s a sleeveless shirt with a collar, back pleat and shirt tail hem. You can buy the pattern directly from Jalie here. I have several ready-made sleeveless shirts that I’ve loved to death and thought that it would be a great idea to make some new ones.

The description says the pattern is A-line and it looks slightly so in the schematic.

This pattern has a huge range of sizes (28), from a girls’ size 2 to womans 24. What’s interesting is the grading – the front of the smallest size is just barely A-line, but by the time it’s a woman’s blouse, it looks closer to a swing top. The back doesn’t show the same change: it remains pretty straight.

Since the line drawing on the pattern envelope might not be giving a good indication of results for larger sizes, I searched online for more info. This blog post is a comparison between two button-down shirt patterns, Jalie Rose and Grainline Alder. Scroll down to the image of Bonnie wearing both completed shirts. The purple one on the right is Jalie Rose and you can see that it’s closer to a swing top for her than an A-line shirt.

I suspect this shirt in the women’s sizes might offer a better fit to women who are more buxom than me. Those side seams might have to come in for me to be happy. The question is “how much?” I decided to cut my first test version of this shirt in a lightweight cotton just as it is, in the hope that I’ll still like it and wear it. And here’s the finished shirt:

I do like it! The instructions for this shirt are great, very clear and quite clever in places. I don’t think I’ve ever had a two-piece collar go in so easily and come out so perfectly. The way they instruct you to put in the yoke is brilliant. The garment ends up being beautifully finished, too. The sleeves are finished with bias binding. I felled the side seams, as well. The hem is a shirt-tail but only gently curved, so it’s easy to press it up and double-fold it for the hem. It’s odd to have to space your own buttons, but it worked out just fine.

It is definitely a loose A-line shirt, but I’ll wear it.

The one disappointing thing is that the pattern offers no option with sleeves.

I cut another in a Kaffe Fassett yarn-dyed stripe from my stash. I photographed it flat, rather than on Nellie, so you could see how wide it is in the hips:

I am pretty much a 14 by the Jalie measurements, so I cut the Y in this shirt.

I like this one, too, but if I cut more (next summer) I’ll take in that front side seam and go for a trimmer silhouette. This is fun and comfortable, a good hot weather shirt, but it does veer a little close to the maternity-top-look for me. I might cut one in rayon first, just to see how it drapes. Hmm.

What do you think? Do you have a favorite sleeveless shirt pattern?