There has been a massive hole in my closet for a while - I need more comfortable tops! Most of my handmade tops have been sent to alteration purgatory, and to be honest I'm not sure I want to fix them. I guess I've been on a skirt and dress kick this year because I sure don't seem to have much else!
What I do have is a box full of knit fabrics from Girl Charlee that I ordered earlier this year (I had ambitions of starting an Etsy shop. You can guess what happened to those ambitions). I finally had some time for sew for myself, so I thought I should finally do something useful with those fabrics and make myself some comfy tops!
I thought about using my self-drafted t-shirt pattern, but I really wanted something less basic. Something with a little more style. I'd been wanting to make the Briar shirt from Megan Nielsen for a while, so I went ahead and bought the PDF pattern so that I could get started.
I cut three Briars out at the same time so that I could have them all ready to sew. This version is the only one I've completed so far...and I've worn it 3 times within the last week. Don't judge.
I love this top!
This version was made semi-cropped by drawing a line in between the cropped and full-length version. I wanted it to be just long enough to wear with my regular jeans, but it came out a little too short. It does work perfectly with my high-waisted shorts however, and I really love it with those! I've also worn it to work with a tank top underneath.
This fabric was a nightmare to sew with! It's tissue thin and very drapey. I had to pull out all of my sewing-with-knits tricks! The pocket was sewn using tear-away stabilizer (the kind you use for embroidery - works wonders!). The hems were sewn after using Stitch-Witchery to fuse them down. I would have preferred to use knit stay tape, but I still haven't ordered any. I keep swearing I'm going to do that and then cursing myself every time I sew with knits and don't have any. Stitch-Witchery definitely works, it just leaves it feeling like it has something papery underneath. But not noticeable, so no biggie. The rest was done entirely on my serger. Which was slightly scary. No seam ripping!!!!
Note to my small busted readers: I was totally expecting to grade this pattern down since the smallest size offered is for a 33" bust, but after measuring the pattern I found that the bust line is 32" (probably to account for negative ease?) and decided to just sew it up as is. I'm 31.5" and the fit feels perfect to me.
I highly, highly recommend this pattern. The instructions are great, the fit is great, and it's comfortable and stylish enough that you'll want to wear it all the time. You could easily give it a straight hem, which is what I think I will do if I turn this into a class (and I think I might. I need a good class for learning to work with knits!).
Labels: finished projects, sewing
