virginia’s strasbourg henley

We love this Strasbourg Henley that Virginia made for her daughter. This versatile pattern works well for both warm and cool seasons. Take it away, Virginia!

I love a Henley Tee, so when Liesl released the Strasbourg Henley in the spring pattern release, I knew I wanted to sew this pattern.

I decided to make a short sleeve henley for my daughter first in some rib knit that I found at Spotlight (a fabric store in Australia). This pattern also has an option for a long sleeve, but it is still summer here.

I made a size small, and even though this pattern was already a fairly cropped length, my daughter likes to wear her tops at a shorter length, so I removed an inch at the shorten/lengthen line. This was the only alteration I made to the pattern.

I love sewing with knits, but I had never sewn with rib knit before, so it was a learning curve for me, but it was easy to sew.
The pattern instructions were amazing, as usual with Liesl’s patterns, and sewing the placket was straightforward and well-explained.
The one change I would make when using rib knit next time is to shorten the neckband length as the rib knit was very stretchy, and I think the band would lay better if it were about an inch shorter.

I sewed the buttons on through both plackets as I did not want to attempt to sew buttonholes on this fabric, and I used four buttons so the opening would sit a little higher on her chest.

I used a twin needle to sew the hems, and the bottom hem did go a little wavy even after steaming with the iron. Next time I will fuse some tricot interfacing on the hem to stabilize the rib knit while sewing.

I am very happy with the Strasbourg Henley pattern, and I am now cutting a short-sleeve one out for myself, and I will be making many long-sleeve ones once the weather starts to cool down.

It looks fabulous on my daughter and will get lots of wear.