DIY Basketball Jersey Tutorial and Pattern Hack

Back in March, my boys were gearing up for March Madness and we were living and breathing basketball around here. My boys are huge basketball fans, and my four-year-old is always stealing his older brother’s Wisconsin jersey. So I made him his own, and put together this DIY basketball jersey tutorial for you to make one too.

I grabbed my copy of the Just a Jersey T-shirt pattern from Blank Slate Patterns and hacked it into a basketball jersey. This basketball jersey is really simple and could probably be adapted for other V-neck t-shirt patterns as well.

DIY Basketball Jersey Tutorial

This pattern is designed for knits, but I used an athletic mesh fabric without any stretch. Before putting the pattern together, I widened the neck and lengthened the neckband to account for the lack of stretch. (And I made sure it would fit over my son’s head before I sewed it all together – don’t skip that important step!)

The Just a Jersey pattern has sleeves built into the yoke, but I wanted the jersey to be sleeveless. To do this I simply cut off the pattern piece after the seam allowance notch (where you’d sew down the side seams).

After sewing the yoke, neckband, and the front and back pieces, I also wanted contrasting side panels. To do this, leave about an inch free on either end, when sewing the front and back pieces on (you can see that on the red fabric above). Cut a side panel that was the same length as the front and back pieces. Then cut out a scoop for the armhole.

Sew one side of the side panel to the back piece.

Then line up the yoke and back pieces, and finish sewing across through to the side panel. Repeat with the other side of the side panel and again with the next side panel. Fold the raw edge of the armhole under and hem.

I had hoped to add a number to the front and back of the jersey with heat transfer vinyl, but I could NOT get the vinyl to stick to the athletic mesh. But we can still root for our Badgers without it. ;)