I’ve recently been revisiting the lovely Kabuki Tee pattern by Paper Theory.

I’ve previously sewn the Kabuki tee in linen and cotton chambray and it’s been on my mind for ages to make it in a more fluid fabric. And, yeah, what can I say, it does not disappoint.

It’s been two years since I sewed my first Kabuki tees. It can always be interesting to see how our makes have fared over time, right? The Nani Iro ripple linen Kabuki Tee still gets worn all the time. I consider it one of the most show stopping pieces in my wardrobe. The light blue chambray, on the other hand, I almost never wear. In retrospect, it looks to stiff and “dead” on my body and I don’t feel comfortable in it.

But the practicality of having a blue Kabuki tee, given the colour tones of my wardrobe, was part of what encouraged me to revisit this lovely pattern.

Kabuki Tee: Redux

For this latest round of the Kabuki tee, I went up two sizes compared to my previous versions to use a size 14. What can I say, the list two years have not been kind to waistline.

But the main thing I wanted was to use drapey fluid fabrics.

You know, I do often find myself making linen and cotton tops but it’s less certain whether I will actually wear them. On my top half, especially around my arms, I tend to find fabrics which aren’t especially fluid very restrictive and don’t find myself reaching for them that often.

These versions of the Kabuki tee have been made up in Atelier Brunette Posie Viscose I purchased last year. This particular colour way, with the green and ochre tones on white, seems to be sold out in a lot of places.

The blue version is in Meet MILK light diamond jacquard tencel, in the sky colour way, from Meter Meter.

Sewing the Kabuki Tee

I’m not going to go to much into construction, since there wasn’t anything new here for me (check out my first Kabuki post if you want a bit more)

I do always feel like I’m learning some nifty new idea each time I sew a Paper Theory pattern. For example, with this one, to bias bind the neckline the Kabuki tee has you sew one side of the shoulder only, then you bind the neckline with one shoulder still open, which enables you to get the length of the binding perfectly matched to the length of the neckline. Then you sew up the second shoulder seam.

Well, that just makes a whole let of sense to me. There is nothing worse than when your neckline binding is somehow no longer the exact same size as your neckline!

The Paper Theory website also has a fantastic tutorial about sewing right angles like the shoulders of the Kabuki Tee. In my opinion, it is essential viewing for anyone sewing this pattern!

And I still find sewing right angles inordinately fun!

My modifications to the Kabuki Tee

The Atelier Brunette print has no modifications from the original Kabuki tee pattern, except that the back is cut in two pieces because I didn’t have enough fabric to cut it as a single piece and I put in a little side split to facilitate half tucking.

I made a few modifications to the blue one whee I have created a high-low effect by cutting it to a very cropped length at the front, while sticking with the original longer length at the back.

To get the cropped length of the front right, I just tried the top on with my Miller Trousers and marked exactly where I wanted it to sit – thus finding my perfect length with high waisted pants!

I like to think of it as half-tuck without the tuck. Why faff around with the actual tucking business!

I thought that the back should be slightly curved to pull off the hi-lo shape, but I didn’t want it too curved. In the end, I had a lot of difficulty hemming the curved back. I thought that because I had only added in a very little amount of curve, a regular hem would still work. It kind of did, but only just. It would have been a much better finish if I had bias bound the back hem.

I also extended the arm of the Kabuki tee, simply by extending the length of the arm piece in a straight line, as long as my available fabric would alllow. Sorry, I guess I was in a pretty unscientific mood when I made these Kabuki Tees because I haven’t kept a proper record. My best guess is I extended it about 4-5 inches.

On the whole, I think the extended arms are perhaps a bit too much. They pool a bit under the arm and I also had some issues sewing them. I used French seams but they somehow caught at the underarm and the seam doesn’t sit entirely straight.

Sorry, bad blogger!

(Speaking of which, I took this photos during a tiny sliver of sunlight, during which I was in such a rush I put on these Miller Trousers backwards and didn’t notice! Ooops!!)

OK, so that is pretty much all I have to say about these Kabuki tees. Sometimes it’s nice to engage in low risk sewing. I knew I loved this pattern. I knew these fabrics would make great versions. Sometimes, some sewing simplicity, is just what we need!

Oh and, finally, a little P.S! If you like to get your blog hits through Bloglovin’, feel free to follow me over there: you can find me here. And you can find me on Instagram here.