Monday 9 May 2022

Pattern Fantastique Glacial skivvy x 3, ready for winter!

 I bought the set of three tees by Pattern Fantastique.  I like the two I have made so far - the Equinox and now the Glacial.  However it's so hard for me to remember which is which!  This (I've checked) is the Glacial.  It's a fitted top with a curved hem and different hem and sleeve length options.  The sleeve is dropped slightly.  On me this is a perfect fit baselayer top.  I made the long sleeve length and it's delightful.

I made a straight size 8. 

This pattern is cut flat rather than on the fold.  It is really annoying, but truthfully it uses a lot less fabric that way - I had a scant metre of the merino and would have struggled to get it cut on the fold.  The other annoying thing is the neckband is cut as the same length as the top so you MUST cut it shorter.  I really hate doing that as my estimates of neckband tightness are variably successful.  I generally was cutting off about 4". The other fun feature is that the hem bit is separate to the body in my pattern pieces and there was a mistake on the pattern with both the front and the back called front.  My little hem piece was incorrectly labelled.  I cut the longer hem on the first flowered version but I accidentally put the back hem on the front and vice versa.  Once I realised, I tailored a random new hem that is somewhere in between, lengthwise. When you buy these three patterns together you get them at a low price with no instructions - though there are instructions online.  This all suits me just fine.  One less thing to find fault with...

The flowered fabric is from Ansje Handmade, it's an Art Gallery oeko tex cotton spandex blend, perfectly spongey and amazing. Not there anymore.

The rainbows are from my order with blended thread awhile ago and were the precious fabric that actually tipped me over the edge to make the order, this is their bamboo or modal blend.  I still would not order from them again; the shipping etc were just too much and too many of the fabric bases are not really to my liking. 

I went with a shorter hem on the rainbows which feels surprisingly cropped, I must be getting used to having longer tops.  Thus I stuck with the correct version of the longer hem for my white merino. 










 

In terms of the white merino: I had a sudden vision of this top awhile ago.  Dunedin is blustery a lot of the time and merino makes sense.  I'm still wearing clothes at work (the scrub threat hasn't materialised) and I realised I absolutely needed a white baselayer top.  I actually went to the fabric store and picked out my perfect fabric to make this.  THIS is the advantage of having shops local.  I would never have made a white top otherwise!  It's really satisfying to realise I don't need to rush to buy fabric, since it's there just down the street.  I used pale aqua overlocker thread and it's fascinating how totally you can see through the top despite the cool honeycomb pattern of the merino.