SewLibra:
I wanted sturdy enough fabric to support the grommets and found this navy and red ponte roma knit at JoAnn Fabrics. It's a nice quality, though not quite as stretchy as I would have liked. Bought it anyway for my 4th of July top.
SewLibra:
Tissue fitting my dress form to get an idea of sizing. I aways start by pinning the front and back exactly on the center front and center back of the form. I had read that this pattern runs small.
SewLibra:
Comparing the side seam to the form side seam. I took flat pattern measurements and also compared my TNT tee pattern. I did not want to make a muslin and I didn't.
SewLibra:
Because of my high waist I need a "swayback adjustment". Outline the back pattern piece on pattern paper. Measure the needed decrease down from the cutting line at center back. Mark and slide the pattern down to the mark. Trace the new neckline.
SewLibra:
Keeping the pattern in place, place a pin at the stitching line where the neck and shoulder intersect.
SewLibra:
Pivot the pattern to the original outline at the end of the shoulder seam. Trace the new shoulder cutting line.
SewLibra:
This shows the difference between the original pattern and my 1" adjustment. It does change the angle of the shoulder seam, but for me it doesn't make a difference in fit at the shoulder.
SewLibra:
Trace the new line onto to your pattern, cut it off, fold it in, or draft a new back piece. This method doesn't skew the grainline, or change the hem or armscyes. It eliminates low back wrinkles perfectly by taking the excess from the top of the pattern.
SewLibra:
I cut the long sleeve of the pattern to 3" below the armscyce for short sleeves. I made sleeve bands so this was fine, but later I traced out a new sleeve and added 5/8" hem allowance because next time I may not use a band.
SewLibra:
I used my Curve Runner and determined there was 2" of ease on the sleeve caps. That's a ridiculous amount of ease for a knit which needs none! I took 1 1/4" out via a horizontal fold of 5/8" and trued the curves. The remaining 3/4" ease was doable.
SewLibra:
I lengthened the front and back 1 1/2" at the lengthen line. After basting the side seams, I went back to the pattern and took off some of the hip flare. I also straightened the curve at the bust where I blended sizes. (Experiment gone wrong - ha!)
SewLibra:
I have a tip on Patternreview.com about using sticky dots for the wrong side of fabric. I really needed it for this ponte! I also love my very old trusty pattern weights!
SewLibra:
I stabilized the front bands by fusing Pellon Knit-N-Stable strips close to the foldline, making sure my gromments would be centered on the tape. This gave me 2 fabric layers and 2 fusible layers for stabilization. Should be fine for buttonholes too.
SewLibra:
Everywhere the pattern says "double-stitch", you can serge instead. But pin back the SA under the front bands before serging, or you could easily mess up your armscye!
SewLibra:
Really all you do is fold up one straight line associated with your size and it ends up looking like this. It makes one continuous smooth armscye.
SewLibra:
After attaching my front bands, I marked the 5/8" seam allowances on the band, decided on 3 grommets, measured the distance between, and made my grommet holes. This tool is the Dritz 574 Eyelet Pliers. So easy!
SewLibra:
I didn't want to worry about bra straps showing through the holes, so I attached the grommets on the band only so the navy fabric could show through instead of my skin. Also it would have been too thick with the double thickness of the yokes.
SewLibra:
Next I lined up the band over the yoke, and lined up the armscyes. I pinned it place for topstitching.
SewLibra:
I only need one binding now instead of the two the pattern has. The bottom chalk line is 5/8" SA and the top line is 3/8" I trimmed down the front neck to 3/8", blending to the back neck and sewed on a narrow binding.
SewLibra:
For the sleeve bands I cut 2" strips to have 3/8" folds on each side and end up with 1 1/4" bands, the same as the front bands. I pressed under one side.
SewLibra:
My folded sleeve width was 7", so I folded the bands and cut them at 7 1/2". The 1/2" is for the seam allowance.
SewLibra:
After sewing the band ends right sides together and pressing the seam open, I pinned the unfolded edge to the sleeve edge right side band to wrong side sleeve. Matched seams and stitched at 3/8" SA.
SewLibra:
After sewing on the bands I pressed the SA back and understitched to keep the band from rolling to the outside.
SewLibra:
Here I am understitching. If you don't have an edge foot or stitch-in-the-ditch foot, you will never regret getting one. I have both and use one or the other on every project.
SewLibra:
I marked both the inside and outside of the sleeve band for grommet placement. Out of all my sketches for the sleeve band: vertical, diagonal, more gromments, etc., I decided less is more and made the band on the hem with only 1 grommet. Lol.
SewLibra:
I fused two small pieced of Knit-N-Stable right over my placment mark on the inside of the sleeve band.
