Plantain Tee Plus

I whipped up the free Deer and Doe Plantain T-shirt which has relatively-recently been updated to include their extended sizing, up to a 60″ hip.

Meg from Cookin’ and Craftin’ made this back in 2014 before the expanded sizing was a twinkle in Deer and Doe’s eyes, and it seemed high time that I test it out too.

Credit where it’s due

I’d like to applaud Deer & Doe’s effort and say how much I appreciate the styling treatment that the plus model gets for the Plantain (but actually for all of their extended patterns). So often you’ll see the larger model get second-class treatment and will have much less care given to their look- that is definitely not the case here! The sheer mesh Plantain on the plus model?! F*%$ yes!

Pattern details

I was pleased to see that the neckband had notches for easy insertion, and didn’t simply let you fail at the quartering method (weird round French notches, but notches nonetheless). The quartering method works way less often than it’s prescribed (how often is the back neck and the front length a REMOTELY SIMILAR LENGTH?!). This neckband set like a breeze, looked nice before I’d even pressed it, and I really appreciate that it sits flush on the back of my neck.

An interesting detail is that the front pattern piece has ease between the hip and underarm- this detail is, I suppose, for secretly building in extra room for the bust. This is a very clever detail which would have come off easily if I hadn’t chosen a knit with 2-way stretch (and very little of it) and if my blending between the sizes from the armpit out to the hip hadn’t basically meant my fabric had no give along the cut as it was cut on the diagonal.

I ended up clipping the side seam notches, started sewing from the hem and eased as much as I could when I got to that bit. It wasn’t enough though and there’s little tucks in both my armpits.

Size details

I blended from a size 54 out to the size 60 (the largest size) starting from under the armpits. The sleeves are a Size 54 with no blending out to a larger size and are cut at around the 3/4 sleeve length mark (a smidge longer).

I was a bit worried that the sleeves would be too tight, but told myself I could probably get away with not increasing the size because of the knit fabric, but actually they’re a great fit for my 19.5″ bicep

In the end, I’m really pleased with the fit, and with the details- there’s a lot here to like, and not just because it’s free!