My wedding has finally come and gone! It was amazing, wonderful, and even better than I'd hoped for - even with the few little things that went wrong. I'll have pictures to share in a couple of weeks along with a couple of DIY tutorials.
The sewing bug has hit me again, hard! Our house was a wreck after the wedding so I tried to hold off on starting anything new until everything was back in perfect order. I got it mostly in order...enough to not drive me crazy. The whole time I'm plotting out all the fall/winter clothes a want to make - a Beignet skirt! A Burdastyle top! An Anise coat! Oh, I'm getting a little too ambitious there...I need something simple to get me started. And I can't spend any money on it! I've been wanting a nice, basic Breton striped top for ages but never could find one I liked well enough to buy. I also have this vintage navy/white striped sweater knit fabric in my stash. And, hey, a Built By Wendy book with a bunch of t-shirt patterns that I've never used. 20 minutes later I find myself with patterns on the table, drafting out adjustments. Then two days and a few awkward photos later...voila!
I used the "Rock The Boatneck" pattern in the Built By Wendy Sew U: Home Stretch book.
Thanks to a super awesome co-worker, I now have a fancy shmancy new serger that does cover stitch! It's a Huskylock 936. I've been using it for all my serging duties but this top gave me a chance to try out the cover stitch feature. Turns out that it's a real PITA to convert over, but it's so nice to have! I went ahead and did all of the cover stitching at once so that I wouldn't have to switch back and forth. So I serged the left shoulder together, cover stitched the neckline, front/back hems, and sleeve hems, then went back to serging the rest of the top together according to the instructions. It worked out just fine in the end.
I probably should have cover stitched the bottom slit instead
of using my standard straight stitch, but I was so not about to convert
that thing over again!
I used the XS pattern and even though it listed my exact measurement in the sizing guide, I found that the fit is way off. If you follow the instructions for drafting the sleeves they turn out huge! I took mine in by a good two inches. I also found that the top was roomy in the waist but very fitted at the hips. I took in the waist by about 1 1/2 inches on both sides. So keep this in mind if you plan to make anything out of the Home Stretch book. Otherwise, I'd highly recommend it for the guidance on sewing knits and super useful patterns included.
I inherited this fabric (along with a TON of other fabric and sewing notions) from a friend's grandmother. Judging from the label, I believe it's from the 60's. I'm happy that after sitting in a bag for 50 years it's finally been made into something useful. And it's super comfy!
Ok, I should probably finish cleaning my house now...
Labels: finished projects, sewing, tops
