Update: Elbe Textiles Sage Tee

In May of 2024, I completed a whole series on how to fit a shirt. I broke the process into manageable steps starting with the shoulders and slowly working down to the hem, section by section. At the time, I tried this new fitting approach using the Elbe Textiles Sage Tee pattern. Click here to link to that post and the whole series. It has been nearly two years and I find myself no longer fitting into my shirts, but not in the way you would think. This post is a perfect example of why getting the fit of the shoulders right is the most critical step and, therefore, the first step of the fitting approach.

Here is a quick refresher on how I changed the original Elbe Sage Tee (grey). I did not need to change the length of the shoulder at all. I did a 1/2 inch forward shoulder adjustment, but then all my adjustments were focused on the center front, the center back, hem length, and the front armhole shaping.

Identifying the Fit Issue

I have stuck with my personal trainer since graduating from physical therapy in April 2025. I enjoy not having to come up with my own workouts or deal with cleaning up a gym space, and I get to work equal amounts of legs, core, and upper body. I had some painful neck muscle spasms back in November that were likely due to a combination of insufficient vitamin D and general muscle weakness, both of which I have since resolved with vitamin D supplements and lots of shoulder shrugs.

You can see where this is going. At some point, the fit of my shirts changed as I progressed from 10 pound up to 40 pound shoulder shrugs. I started noticing that my center front liked to push up into my neck, and I was fidgeting more and more with my shirt trying to keep it in place. Eventually, I grew so frustrated that my shirt would never stay put on my shoulders that I knew it was time…

With the shoulder seam placed correctly on the top of my shoulders, I immediately identified the problem. The back hem was sitting much higher than my front hem, even though when I originally made the pattern, my center front and center back were on the same horizontal plane. In the image above, on the left I’ve force the shoulder seam in the correct place and on the right the hem is balanced.

What happens throughout the day is the shirt wants to be balanced at the hem, so the shoulder seam inevitably gets pulled backwards. I’ve marked the top of my shoulder in the image above. You can see how far back the shoulder seam has to move in order to balance the hemline.

Here you can see when the hems balanced on the right, the front neckline rides up into my throat. That’s absolutely unacceptable for a comfortable fit!

The other telling sign was that when I forced the shoulder seam onto the top of my shoulder, I could see draglines pulling from the armscye up toward the shoulder. All of these issues told me clearly that I needed to add length to the back shoulder.