14 November, 2010

Slicing and dicing a simple TNT

The problem with having to make quantities of anything is that the process very quickly goes stale unless you the hobby seamst/ress/er do something to ramp up the amusement factor. 

I'm still working on tees (and will be till the end of Nov), but have just about exhausted the amusement factor out of cutting them on the bias.  So I translated this:

to this:


Cutting through the side dart, I separated the front into a yoke and a two-piece overlapping bodice.You can see that the new pattern includes the dart shaping in the horizontal seam. The back is treated the same way, except the horizontal seam is just that: a seam; it adds no shaping.


I originally cut the bodice diagonal with a bit of a curve, but my first result ended up a bit ripply, so the next ones are cut with the diagonal straight and on-grain.  The overlapping pieces aren't attached together except at the horizontal seam.


This pattern just LOOOOVES stripes!  This blue cotton knit is lightweight but has no lycra and very little give, so I treated it just like a woven. I staved off the boredom factor by making it a boatneck and adding sleeves.  I decided on the sleeves after the yokes were already cut, then realized that I have to widen and deepen the sleeve cap to compensate for the fact that the tanktop armscye is cut differently than a sleeved tee's.

Remembering my near-fiascos with other fabrics with less stretch than the Jalie pattern - far less, in one case -  I cut the sleeves waaaay wider, then ended up taking them in, and in, and in.... it felt a little like "guerilla sewing".

 I then shifted gears to the first of my light-as-air silk crepes:



In this case, I changed the bodice to a one piece, with a box pleat in the front.  Sides and shoulders are french-seamed, while the bottom is selvedge - no hemming!  The armscyes and neck are serged, turned in & topstitched, and that resulted in my only error:  they're a little too big, so I'm hoping a little clear elastic will snug'em up.  I should've added 1 cm to them to compensate for the serge+fold!

8 comments:

  1. These are just amazing. I love your imagination. I wish I had half as much. Gorgeous tops.

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  2. Your productivity exhausts me ... I think I'll go lie down :)

    Seriously, these are some great-looking tops!

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  3. I loved TNTs, and the way you're making so many looks, slicing and dicing, is terrific.

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  4. I'm loving what you did to this pattern! Now you won't be wearing the same ole, same ole just in a different color or print! Again can I ask are you just speeding through your fabric collection? Or is all of this production barely making a dent?

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  5. I love your tops. What a great idea!

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  6. Awesome pieces! I think the red top is my favorite. The diagonal really works.

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  7. So creative - the box-pleat one on the bottom is my favorite!

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  8. you are super creative, and I love your ideas and your blog

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