Shoulder Placket Tutorial

This Summer one of my sons broke his arm and needed it cast almost to his shoulder, this made getting tees on and off very tricky.  Inspired by the port access placket of the Pickle Toes Pattern Hope, I added a snap up placket to the shoulders of some of his tees.  I hope you never need it but I've put together a little tutorial for you just in case! A snap placket can either be done on ready made tees or as you are making a new one, this tutorial covers adding one to a new tee and I used the Pickle Toes Patterns Fried Pickles which is FREE with the code from their Facebook Group 

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​Cut 1 Front, 1 Back, 1 sleeve on the fold.

Using the sleeve pattern piece move it half an inch away from the fold and cut around the piece completely, creating 2 mirrored half sleeves.

Cut the seam allowance (3/8" in this case) off the shoulder of the front and back pieces on the side you want the snap placket.

Sew the shoulder seam of the left hand side (RST)

Sew the full sleeve ont the left hand side as per the pattern 

Pin and sew the half sleeves to the right hand sides, matching shoulder and side seams










Cut the neckband piece as per the pattern and cut off the seam allowance x2 from 1 end (3/8" seam allowance here so 3/4" cut off)










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Fold the neckband in half, pin and sew on as per the pattern instructions matching the raw edges to the raw edges of the shoulders.










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Now you need to measure for the placket.  Measure from the folded edge of the neckband, across the raw edge of the shoulder and all the way to the end of the sleeve

Mine measured 9". Now you need to take off the sleeve hem allowance (mine was 1/2") and add on 2x seam allowances (I used 3/8") bringing the total length needed for mine to 9 1/4"  

Cut 2 of that length by 2" 




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​​Interface both pieces













Fold lengthways, RST and sew each end with your seam allowance (3/8")

Trim, turn right way out and press

Repeat for 2nd piece










Pin and sew 1 placket to the front RST, aligning with the neckband.  It should be shorter than your sleeve by the amount of your sleeve hem










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​Repeat for the back side too 














Flip placket backwards and press, topstitch if you choose













Fold Hem allowance under and hem






Hem other sleeve and bottom of tee









Add snaps to the plackets
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You're done! Now it's easy to step into the tee and snap the arm hole closed!
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I hope I've explained it well enough but I'm not very experienced in tutorials so please do ask in the comments below if you need something explained differently, I'm very friendly!