Meet the New Hemlock Tee

Today I would like to re-introduce you to our most popular pattern of all time (it's free) the Hemlock Tee! A bit of background: I drafted the Hemlock tee for a blog post I did with Britex Fabrics way back in 2013 and had no plans of it becoming anything much. Since it was a free download for a fabric company's blog posts I didn't spend a lot of time on production outside of drafting, which meant it was a one size download with very limited instructions.

As the Hemlock grew in popularity we started getting requests for a graded pattern. I knew that eventually I wanted to grade the pattern into our full size range, but at the same time I also knew that in an ideal world I would like to re-draft the entire thing and expand it into the size range that I wanted us to have, the range we now currently have. Because of this, I put off updating the pattern for about 2 years until our new block was ready.

I knew this would be one of our first releases with the new block; it was important to us that our free pattern was available to all potential Grainline customers and not just those who happened to randomly fit the one size I drew up for that first blog post. We went back to the drawing board with this pattern and re-drafted both Hemlocks from scratch. The result is a slightly more refined fit, more balanced seams, and a lot more length options on both the body and the sleeve! 

Just a quick note, all of the body and sleeve lengths are interchangeable, we just needed to pick three for ease of explanation. 

Now let's talk about the design elements of the Hemlock. All views of the Hemlock feature a boxy, draped body, dropped shoulders, a banded neckline and wide hems. Here we're showing the short sleeve, cropped body version. The short sleeve sits a few inches above your elbow while the body hits just lower than the natural waist. This body length is perfect for pairing with high waisted skirts and pants.

The second variation of the Hemlock features the original 3/4 sleeve length but a body length that hits between the waist and hip. I love this version alone with jeans or layered with a cardigan. Personally this view is my favorite!

You'll recognize the length of the body in this third version as the original Hemlock length. If you're looking for a cosy tunic length tee to wear with jeans or leggings this length is for you! We paired this with the new long sleeve option.

As far as fabric, really the sky is the limit! If you've ever perused the Hemlock hashtag on Instagram you'll see that people have used every type of knit available on this top. For our samples we used fabrics with a wide range of drape and stretch content so you can really see how the top looks in different fabrications.

On Elise above for instance we have the following fabrics:

• Left: A relatively stable merino jersey knit from The Fabric Store. You can see how the top retains some structure in this fabric. There is no lycra added which keeps the shape of the top in tact. 
• Center: This is a cotton linen blend knit without added lycra. You can see that it has much more drape than the merino, but still maintains the overall shape of the top.
• Right: Here we have a 1x1 micro rib that is 96% rayon and 4% lycra. You can see how fluid this fabric is in how it hangs from the body. The shape of the top is not maintained in this fabric, rather it glides off the body in a way the other two don't.

We'll be doing a full fabric post as part of the Hemlock Sew-Along and will have a lot more fabric choices and discussion for you then.

In the meantime I hope this was a useful introduction to the new Hemlock pattern. You can get the Hemlock pattern by subscribing to our newsletter via the link in our footer. Once you confirm your subscription you'll receive a welcome email containing the links to download the pattern.

If you have any questions let us know in the comments below and tag us on social media using #grainlinehemlock and #grainlinestudio so we can see what combinations of the Hemlock you make!