First up was the tee that I mentioned in my last post, McCall's 7295:
The instructions for this pattern are fine but the photos are confusing. I was seriously not understanding their illustration for attaching the shoulder band and in the end put the pattern pieces on Lily and had a duh moment
Basically the front sleeve attaches to the front of the shirt, the back sleeve to the back of the shirt and then the front and back are each sewn to the band.
My daughter got home just as I was getting ready to do the neck binding and she told me to go with black. I think that was a good choice!
I -LOVE- the shaped hemline!!
I was getting myself mentally prepared to do twin-needle stitching in grey, black and white and then realized my machine already had white thread loaded with the twin needle - oh well, there goes that! Haha! I decided 'what the heck' and went with white topstitching everywhere. And I actually really like it! It goes with the casual vibe of the top
I promise my neckband is not wonky! It's my raised arm from selfie-taking :)
One note of caution on the neck binding. My gray jersey is not very stretchy at all, the black is much lighter weight so it has more give and the white is very, very slinky. If I'd used the gray, the pattern piece would have been fine but with the black I had to remove about an inch of the binding or else it would have been floppy.
A funny note about the fabric; gray is from SR Harris, black is from Fabric Mart and white is from Fabric.com! I love it!
Because the hem has so much shaping I serged the edge and did a double fold. The sleeves were serged, folded up 3/4" and topstitched.
The size Medium has a 39.5" finished bust which equates to zero ease for me. That's how I like a casual knit top like this - no ease (not negative ease). From what I've gleaned, with dropped shoulders and cut-on sleeves (like kimono and dolman), a little fold at the armpit is inherent. Plus, this is a casual garment so I'm not going to be picky about "perfect fit".
I did a 3/4" swayback adjustment (and added a CB seam) and added a little more hip room with a slash and spread (added 1/2" so 1" total). I think I need another 1.5" - 2"! It is *just* grazing so with movement it gets hung up on my butt. When I tried it on with jeans I had pooling in back. With leggings it was fine and here I'm wearing yoga pants so it bunches a little. That's what makes me believe it's not the swayback causing the pooling but that it doesn't have quite enough room to make it over the butt!
If I were making it as a top (and not loungewear), I would shorten it about 3". (I can totally see me making this for spring/summer as a t-shirt alternative so I'm putting this there for my own recollection later.)
At any rate I absolutely LOVE it. I'd like to make it in a solid for the body and undersleeve (with a contrasting 'strip') and topstitch the seams.
Lastly, I broke my fabric-stash fast as mentioned and I absolutely love everything I ordered. It's predominantly knits with a couple cuts of lace.
The chevron crepe knit on top is to die for <3
