A wide range of Tees & Tanks & various experiments

After a crazy move and 3 months of semi nomadic living, the sewing room was up and ready and....overwhelm!  Where to start?  I kicked it off with a simple tee binge. 

 

Patterns 4 Pirates tulip tee - tulip in front 

My friend who was pregnant is now breastfeeding so I thought I would make this for her. I actually think this top is much nicer with the tulip in front rather than in the back. In the back it pulled funny but these are lovely!

Glacial tee 

Oops I forgot to check the neck binding and it is too floppy. I think in future I will make it skinnier as well. This is fine, but the binding bothers me a lot so it might get passed on.  (Done- and my friend LOVES it.)

 

Merlo tee in very very sticky viscose 

Don't rock climb and then sew? I decided to do up this top in a single colour because I thought the tee would be amazing and I really just didn't like the way any of my scraps matched up.  But this very drapey heavy viscose is a pain to sew and caught on my freshly post rock climbing fingers and was not fun.  I used some double sided sticky iron on tape for the hem which saved my sanity, and made coverstitching very pleasant!  However, the bands on the sleeves were ridiculous, turning it into a weirdly elbow length top, so I eventually sucked it up and removed the middle bits and put the bands back on. I will see if a less drapey fabric is tighter and shorter - it's nice to have a lot of ways to colourblock, but also overwhelming. 

Another feature of this fabric I've noticed when wearing is that I feel like it would be better suited to a curvier person.  Or this fabric really needs to be tight.  I might wear it more in the later spring and summer with a sports bra but there's a high chance it will be flying to a new home.  One of my best friends has moved to Sweden and her beach-friendly wardrobe needs some upgrades, which of course I'm happy to help provide! 

Elbe Botany with ruffle 

This is a really lovely silk? Wool? blend with metal bits.  Apparently designer deadstock, from Fabric Godmother.  I wanted to hurry and make something with it before I decided it was Too Special to Touch.  This was a great match for the fabric, but the pattern is not clear that you need to cut a lot of bias tape, and so I ended up needing to scrounge that from scraps.  Not optimal, and left me with very narrow bindings.  Overall the top is great despite that, but it's very airy so I might not be taking it on my upcoming Europe trip as planned.  

Sew Liberated Strata tee in velvet 

I had a leftover piece of velvet bothering me and realised it would be a great match for the drape of the Strata tee pattern.  I didn't love the Strata in a lightweight fabric - I think it is better matched to something heavier with good drape.  Whipped this up for a friend who I thought might be cheered by something new.  The velvet was pretty painful especially around the neck binding, but the results are perfect.  

Jalie top bias cut 

Experimenting with the Jalie to see whether I could use it for woven fabrics by turning it on the bias.  The answer is sort of yes.  It fits well, but I'm not entirely happy with the fit at the armhole.  I might try lowering the armhole by 1" and see if that suits me more.  I want to eventually maybe use this for a scrap of very fancy designer silk, but I think more editions are necessary before I commit.  I have not yet adjusted my pattern pieces, but on this top each time I make it I remove about 2" from the back hem, making it less curved and also less droopy fabric catching on my bum.  

Update on this one: wore it on my trip and it is a win. The armhole doesn't bother me at all, and being on the bias it just moves with my curves.  I feel confident enough not to do more practice versions - I will be making it in the silk next. 

 

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.