The inspiration for this pattern was the ‘sewing woes’ fabric by Alexander Henry, which I got from Voodoo Rabbit. I wanted a boxy top that didn’t have fussiness or shoulder seams like a raglan so that the cartoon was easy to read. Check out a portion of the cartoon….
At a hefty $30/m, even I was going to make a toile – especially when the pattern only had 2 pieces. It doesn’t get any simpler than that: one front piece, one back piece. So I dug into my stash for a spotted and soft double guaze from Spotlight to use as the toile. There was barely enough fabric and I loved that – not much wastage and some stash-busting to boot. It’s worth noting that unless you have over 140cm fabric width, you’re going to need cut the pieces one above the other, which means having a long length of fabric leftover down the side. Might work for pants later.
So I was all ready for the easiest-sew ever, but there was a catch. (There always is, right?) The pattern is for knits (stretch fabric) and my fabrics were woven. All the more reason to sew a toile.
I’d already used this pattern twice before in different sizes (for a kid and another adult) so I knew it ran too wide in the neck hole and too long in the arm hole. I made those changes and then sewed up the double guaze, which was so fine that it wanted to change shape all the time, like silk.
There were a few take-aways from this. (1) The neck was still too wide. (2) The arms fell too far down my arms for my liking (I was after a capped-kimono sleeve) – so I folded them up as high as I could before turning and hemming. The loose-weave gave me just enough play to make that happen but I knew the next fabric wouldn’t be so forgiving, since the lines weren’t parallel. (3) Bias binding isn’t the neatest way to finish the neck when compared to facing (especially if the facing is interfaced). A soft fabric like double gauze can easily get pulled out of shape, as it has a bit with this one. I’m going to use facing more often now that I know this.
Time for the stiffer fabric…. I made the neck hole narrower (between the shoulders) but deeper (at the front) so I could still get it over my head. I also squared up the kimono sleeves so I could turn and hem them more easily. The new shape is in red below.
I sewed it with an interfaced facing at the neck – much neater. Unfortunately I still wasn’t happy with the sleeves. Again, they went too far down the arms and since this fabric was stiffer than the last one, they looked puffy and weird. (The pattern is intended for knits, which would have draped better.)
I should have taken a photo before I started in with the Emergency Darts but I didn’t. I had no plan of attack with the darts. I just played-pinned-ironed-sewed (with fingers crossed). I usually prefer to sew darts from behind so they’re hidden but in this case, it was hard to get in there due to a previous dart so I just topstitched, knowing that the cartoon would hide it enough. The result is that the shoulder now has more of a boxy structure to it and the ease (all that extra puffiness) is moved down in line with the armpit, as you can see below.
Is it too weird? I dunno. I wouldn’t want to try this again. Might try cutting the kimono sleeves off altogether instead. Plus add another inch on the body length.
Not weird. Great!
Well done with getting this top out of a small amount of this fabric! I made a sleeveless top in the same fabric and just about managed to scrape out two masks out of the remnant on the side (photos on insta).
Thanks Cherrie,
I’m not on Insta but might check it out one day, since that’s where most sewing pics seem to end up. (Tried FB once and didn’t like it.) If I do, I’ll look up your makes 🙂