(We did it!)* repeat four times from asterisk

You may not know this -- I only know it as a consequence of spending two and a half days with a two and a half year-old -- but every time Dora the Explorer accomplishes something, she launches into a song the lyrics of which mainly consist of the phrase "We did it!"  It's been in my head for daaaaaaaays.

Anyhow:  are you like me?  Are you a) lazy and b) unsure of your skills? 

Those two attributes have kept me from trying the V-neck version of the Renfrew tee for a year now.  But before we went to New York, I was in the mood to make a couple tee shirts, and I felt that one of my stash fabrics would really work as a V-neck, so I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try.  It was easy to make that decision because I wasn't crazy in love with the print.  You guessed it - another sale buy from Girl Charlee.  It's actually kind of great to have some cheap fabrics around that I'm not in love with - it makes taking these risks easier.

The lazy part comes into play because I had to get out my sewing machine AND my serger.  Generally, I sew all my knits on the serger only.  But I really didn't trust myself to get the V right with it, so I sewed the neck binding together and then attached it to the neckline using a zigzag stitch on the regular sewing machine.  After that I serged off some of the excess seam allowance.  I could have taken off more, but I was scared.  I also could have played around with my stitch width and length and made those zigzags smaller, but as I've mentioned, I'm lazy.  And yes, I know my serger tension is off.

The instructions have you clip into the V on the body of the sweater so that you can pin the binding around the neckline - I clipped in about a half inch.  It was a little scary to do that, but you know what?  It worked great!  I'm very happy with my first V.  Of course, I'll probably not be able to do it this well next time when I use a fabric I love, because that's the way things work, right?

No topstitching.  Lazy.  It came back to haunt me though because after I washed it, the seam allowance flipped up and I had to iron it down.  That's right - I ironed a tee shirt.  I do that a lot.  You'd think I would learn!  In my defense though, sometimes it's a style choice.  But not this time.

Anyhooo, here's the finished top:

I wore it on the plane out to New York, and it was comfortable enough even though this is one of those jersey fabrics that hardly has any stretch and the designs are stiff.  I like that there are so many colors in the print - I think this one will go with a lot of different bottoms.  I wore it with some old brown pants and liked how they looked together.

Have any of you made a V-neck tee shirt?  Was it scary for you?  Did you do anything differently in the construction?