The Internet Made Me Do It

Spending great swaths of time online has been the cause for several things:

Starting a blog HERE

Starting a sewing blog (you're on it)

Reading lots of sewing blogs starting with Male Pattern Boldness 

Wanting a serger. Read about it HERE.

Wanting a better serger. The Toyota  was a nightmare to thread and had other limitations.

Now the serger and the online inspiration have come together and "forced" me to actually try sewing a garment.  I have been avoiding this for a long time because I always have some glitch that dashes the whole project.

While going through my closet I found a little cotton knit top that I bought some time ago and really liked but it never seemed quite right. It was too short which is rarity on me since I barely reach 5' tall.

Since I love the idea of this top, I decided to replicate it. No pattern for  me!  I tediously removed every bit of stitching holding this together in order to create a pattern for a new longer version.

 The solid body of this top was a thin t-shirt knit and the trim a fine woven fabric of two layers with an interfacing. Rows of top-stitching give the trim pieces a bit more body and style. The trim attaches to the edge of the knit without being inside the trim which made it a bit trickier to attach.

Here is my sleeve "pattern" laid out on my slightly heavier knit fabric.

The trim fabric was chosen because
1. I had it on hand.

2. It is very light weight like the original.

3. One of the many colors matched my body fabric.

Here is the work in progress. The picture is blurry as it is very hard to photograph yourself without having the camera in the picture.

At this point this was to be the right side of the garment until I stupidly serged the shoulder seams on the wrong (right) side and I had to reverse the whole thing because removing serging is pretty much impossible and cutting it off would alter the whole fit of the thing.

I found it was a great brain exercise for my elderly mind to figure out the steps to building this thing with no directions.

I loved the way the serger finished off the knit seams.


And here is the reveal...of both me and the top. Or would you call it a sweater since you pretty much have to wear another top under it?

 I have never put a picture of myself on a blog before, but if Peter of Male Pattern Boldness can pose in the underwear he sews, why not?



My age will prevent any speculation as to whether this is a maternity top!

                        I love color. Some of you may wince at the brightness of this, I know.

                   
My favorite feature is the little cuff split and the stitching around it.














But there is a problem and I have had this happen before even when using a commercial pattern that had a placket neckline.

  The neckline is not laying flat. Well, there is also the crepey elderly neck, but ignore that!
I can never see this until the whole thing is done. I even made a muslin on a previous attempt at a garment and I still had it show up.  If I keep moving, it hardly shows at all. I am sure the fabulous sewists that follow Peter's blog could offer help or opinions.