Sunday, August 24, 2014

TNT-top in the making

Hi there guys! I have decided to make this pattern my TNT for sleeveless tops, even if it kills me.


A while ago I asked for your tips for finishing chiffon edges, and thank you so much for your advice. I decided to go the route of visible self-fabric bias binding, which has become a reoccurring theme for my makes this summer. I'll probably hate the look of it when I dig out my summer makes in a year, but what can you do.


Speaking of summer - where did it go so fast? We have had an unusually hot summer this year, and almost over night it turned into pre-fall. It's been raining for the past few weeks and temperatures have dropped drastically. This means I probably won't get a chance to wear my final summer makes anymore this year, boo! That also means weather inappropriate photo shoots, yay!


The construction of this top was nothing special, besides the fact that I used french seams for the first time ever on a project. I think I cheated though (because I'm lazy) and used a 2 cm seam allowance. I sewed the first seam with a 7 mm seam allowance (because that's the width of my presser foot) and the second seam with a 13 mm seam allowance. Okay okay, somewhere between 10 and 15 mm, well go with that. And I didn't trim the excess seam allowance like I think you are supposed to, because I don't mind a wider french seam.


The self-fabric bias strips were surprisingly easy to cut, but they didn't press well. After I attached the binding to the arm scythe, there was gaping under my arm pit that didn't exist before. What kind of fabric sorcery that is I'll never know, but I pinched out an extra centimeter from the pattern to be on the safe side.

The pattern is my first go at Simplicity, and despite all the tweaking I'm pleasantly surprised. I'll definitely be using Simplicity again. The pattern is from the German magazine Meine Nähmode issue 3/2014. The front is from model 11 and the back from model 12. I made some changes to the fit even before making a muslin, which then failed miserably. I thought the left over fabric I used was a chiffon, but it turned out to be a CREPE chiffon, which moved around when I cut it, resulting in total failure. The original seam across the front piece also looked stupid on me, so out came the tape.

I did the usual changes for me: removed gaping at the neckline and arm scythe, both in the front and in the back.



This is my final front pattern piece, which I hope hope hope fits me now.
My plan was to make a couple more of these for One Week One Pattern (which I haven't signed up for yet), but now that the weather has turned I'm not sure what to do. Blame the weather gods and not attend, or bury the tops under cardigans and scarves to fight off an inevitable cold? What to do...


PS. I know I'm rambling today, but I'm so excited for my planned fall makes! I browsed Burda Style last night for some blouse inspiration, because I think that's the way I'll go this fall. Loose-fitting blouses I'll wear every day...mmm... Suddenly fall doesn't seem so bad after all!







2 comments:

  1. I sewed some French seams today and was totally lazy about them as well...and now I have some of the fabric from the first seam peeking out. Oh well!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cute top! I'm excited for Fall too!! Bring it on! :)

    ReplyDelete