Erin Trail

OuterKnown Women’s Blanket Shirt 

Initial Impressions

Wow, this is a REALLY nice flannel(ish) shirt. The inner label on the shirt said “Congratulations! You’ve got the coziest damn shirt in the world.  Soft on you.  Soft on the planet”.  The label is 100% accurate.

Detailed Review

I’ve been wearing the OuterKnown Blanket Shirt nearly every day since I got it a month ago. I use it as a colder morning layer when I’m heading to the pool or to work.  I wear it in the evenings as I watch TV. I wear it on my work-from-home-days. I wear it for sunset brewery patio time. And I took it with me on a 9 day van camping trip to Sedona.  It got A lot of wear for this review.

Technical Details

This shirt is made from 100% organic cotton twill with buttons made from nuts, showing OuterKnown’s commitment to sustainability and ecologically responsible clothing manufacturing. 

Fabric and Care

The fabric is a large-thread twill.  I call this shirt a flannel, but the threads are too big to really be a flannel. The product name is “blanket shirt” but the fabric really isn’t a blanket-type fabric either.  The shirt is made from a very heavy, yet soft, cotton fabric that just feels good when you wear it. My only gripe about the fabric is that it pulls very easily. I have cats and the threads are easily snagged in their claws.  I’ve fixed the snags by poking the loose loops inward and the shirt looks fine. But I now know that I need to exercise caution when wearing the shirt around the cats.

The shirt is easy to clean when out and about.  I had an incident with spaghetti sauce in the van one evening while cooking dinner. The shirt is light in color and I was really worried about stains.  A little dish soap and a small amount of elbow-grease and the bright red spaghetti stains were GONE. (which meant I could continue wearing the shirt during our trip).  It also washes and dries well at home. I washed it in accordance with instructions (delicate, cold, low heat) and I was ecstatic to see that I didn’t have to iron it. Thirty minutes in the drier was plenty and the shirt looks as good as new.

Fit

This fits like a flannel or blanket shirt should – but the sizing is wonky. The size options ae “XS/S” (as in combined sizes), “M/L” and “XL/XXL”. I was new to this brand and looked at the size guide and reviews to determine what size I should get. I ended up going with the size guide recommendations and got a M/L shirt.  And it was enormous. So enormous that I’m pretty sure my former college football player husband could have worn it.  The chest circumference made it feel like I was wearing a tent and I had to roll up the sleeves if I wanted to do anything with my hands.  I exchanged for a smaller size (XS/S) via the process on the website. The exchange process was incredibly easy and fast: return postage was pre-paid and I got my new shirt within a week.  The smaller size fits as I’d expect: a bit big, but in a comfortable way.  It fits great on its own but is also roomy enough to layer over a hoodie sweatshirt.  But the sizing and fit still makes me check the tag on the shirt, making sure it’s a woman’s shirt and not a man’s shirt, because there’s really no way that anything labeled “women’s extra-small” should fit on my body and still be considered “relaxed fit”.

The cut of the shirt is boxy – this isn’t a “dressy” button-down shirt. It fits similar to the flannel shirts those of us from the 90’s remember.  Because of the boxy nature of the shirt, it definitely falls into the casual-wear category or as a layering item in lieu of a jacket.

Overall Impression

I really do love this shirt. It’s become almost like a security blanket, because I’ve taken it with me nearly everywhere since I got it. It fits similar to the flannel shirts from the 90’s, which I love. Except for the threads being easy to pull, I found the shirt to be pretty tough, managing travel and life, surviving accidents involving spaghetti sauce, making it through the wash, while still looking as good as new.  I expect this shirt to live up to its label claims of “being the coziest damn shirt on the planet”. It’s got a permanent spot in my closet.

Erin Trail