So I started playing tennis at an indoor club in January 2024. I had a few tops I'd accumulated made out of the new-to-me performance jersey. It turns out that I really like playing in this material. I only have 3 of these, though, and those that I have are a little tacky. One is a shirt I got after doing the Rugged Maniac event. It's got a lot of writing on it, my favorite of which is "Finisher" in big letters on the back hahahaha. Another is one I got for Xmas, and it's got a company logo on it because the giver could get a lot of tchotchke from her job. The other one turned up a few years ago in the wash and no one claimed it. It's black with weirdly shaped stripes down the side.

When I remembered that I had a stash of Nike performance jersey—blue, red, maroon, and black—I decided to make some tops for tennis. I had already used some blue and black to make a Jalie raglan top that I use as a lightweight pullover, and I ended up getting 5 tops out of the fabric I had left.

It's still cold here, so T-shirts seemed to make sense, but it has been warm a few days, making me realize I'll want tanks when the time comes. So I made a mix of both. In the end, what I sewed was determined by how much fabric I had.

I made 3 tees shirts and two tanks.

• Jalie 3245 tee. I would have liked all raglans for the tees, but there wasn't enough material, and I could only get one raglan. Even though I love that Jalie 2676 raglan top, I thought it might be too loose fitting for tennis, so I used this other Jalie pattern I had.
• Aura tanks. I just got this for this project, and I'm very happy with it.
• Jalie 2005 tees. I have had this pattern a long time! It is a great pattern.

I made a few of these in a long-sleeved version for my daughter years ago. So I had a good size already traced and cut out. I really like how this turned out, and it's very comfortable. 

The pattern doesn't come with a short sleeve, so I chopped the long sleeve pattern piece off where I thought it would be good. It seemed a little short once I cut out the fabric so I added a band in the contrasting color. I like how that turned out.

I wanted some tanks for tennis. I didn't like any pattern I owned, so I went looking for one and found this simple pattern in PDF on the internets. Is the pattern company "Aura" or is the tank top "Aura"? A mystery. Update: mystery solved. Company is Aura Patterns, pattern is "relaxed tank top." Original!

First, I got too clever for my own good. I didn't want voluminous so I compared the pattern measurements to my own and decided to take an inch off the shoulders and lower the armseye by the same. Also, I shortened it and took in the sides about 2 inches. I ended up with a top that doesn't fit how I like. The neck is too high and it's too narrow. Basically, all the adjustments I made were wrong.

So then I sewed it up in my Nike fabric using the pattern straight out of the package. It fit great and it's super comfy. The neckband is a little too big, but I did have to try that a few times. First way too big, then too short, then fuck it, this is close enough.

After cutting out a Jalie 2005 top in the red jersey, I didn't have enough for this top, but it worked out fine when I pieced a couple pieces together and used it for the back piece.

Here is the second top I made with my stash of Nike jersey and the Aura pattern. I got the neckband a little tighter on this one, and it's nice.

I must have made this before, but I don't have any examples documented in this blog. I have traced and cut out a smaller size (R) and written my daughter's name on it, and I also have a size S traced and cut out, which is what I determined I needed this time. (Update I found the earlier versions.)

I added a couple inches to the hips and made this t-shirt for tennis. I didn't have enough of this fabric left to do a raglan top, which I thought I'd prefer (Jalie 3245), but in the end, I like how this turned out. I thought it might be a smidge too small, but I wore it today to play and it was comfortable. The question is when I make another shirt (I have two more bits of this Nike fabric), will I be too lazy to trace out a larger size, or will I just make this one again? 

One thing I learned making this is to never, never, never cut snips into the seam allowance to mark the join marks. OMG I knew I should not do that into a 1/4" seam allowance, but I did because I'm lazy and this method is what so many people say they do. Of course, I ended up with two holes on each side seam. I had to cover them up with satin stitching. It's an absolute pain finding an easy yet accurate method for pattern markings, but snips ain't it. 

I used my new coverstitch to sew hems and topstitch the yoke, shoulders, neckline, AND the side seams, which I did hoping it would cover the holes, which it didn't. Anywho, my coverstitch is a DREAM. It's a Babylock Euphoria, aptly named, and it's 100 billion times better than the POC Janome Coverstitch Pro I traded in for it. So nice to have good equipment.

I still love my Babylock Imagine serger. Even though it's so old it's been discontinued, it's still an awesome machine. My Pfaff Ambition 1.5 is equally old. They don't make those anymore either. But it's also super quality and I still love it.

Here is the second tennis tee I made with my stash of this Nike performance jersey and Jalie 2005. By the time I got to cutting out this shirt, I had only scraps of black, so I had to use red to trim the sleeves. An eensy bit weird, but whatevs. It's comfy and I think it looks cool.