When I first took up sewing, I thought I was going to make all kinds of sweet, perfectly-fitting clothes for myself. I thought I'd start doing alterations for friends as a side job. I thought I'd eventually design a few dresses and open an online boutique. All seamstress-y and awesome like.
I also really wanted to meet Nicole Ritchie. Remember that Fashion Star show?
I soon learned that garment-construction takes a level of patience that, at the time, I just did not possess. I tried paper patterns and did not understand the directions. I tried PDF patterns and couldn't even get the damn patterns put together correctly without bursting into tears. I cut out pattern pieces and the notches never matched up. I'd sew something together and it would either be WAY too big or WAY too small. Or one arm hole was huge and the other was small. Or I couldn't get my head through the collar hole to see if the shirt fit.
I cried more times than I finished a project.
I dumped making clothes for quilting. I found making blankets far more enjoyable.
And it was a quilting project that led me into Fancy Tiger Crafts one sunny afternoon. I hadn't been to Fancy Tiger in a very long time. I tend to fabric shop online. I do this mostly because I don't like leaving my house but also because I don't like cutting table lines. I have never actually waited in the cutting table line at Fancy Tiger, it's quite possibly an enjoyable experience. I just don't like queues in general.
Anyway, I stopped in to Fancy Tiger to see if they carried a very certain fabric that I was using for my current quilting project. I bought the fabric online but it's taking me so effing long to make the quilt that when I discovered I needed more of the fabric, I couldn't find it online anymore.
I didn't find the fabric at Fancy Tiger, but as I was perusing the shop, this pattern caught my eye: Fancy Tiger's Sailor Top Pattern. Sooooooo cute. I am a SUCKER for gathered sleeves. I wasn't going to buy it because I HATE making clothes.....but.....damnit, I can't explain it. Crafter addiction took over and before I knew it I was at home grasping the pattern packet like Charlie Bucket holding the Golden Ticket.
Now I will bring up another reason I'm not a fan of making clothes. You have to make a muslin. I mean, you don't HAVE to, but then messing up your project can be really expensive. I mean, a nicely patterned chambray fabric can be $18.00 a yard, cotton lawn can be $30. That means this shirt could cost the same as a ready-made top at Anthropologie. I just want to make the shirt once and love it right away. Well, luckily, I found this cute chambray on sale at Joann's. Sixty percent off, can't beat that. Now this shirt will be normal shirt price so it can be a WEARABLE muslin: cheap enough that if it doesn't fit right it won't be a huge waste of money and if I actually don't mess it up, I can wear it in public.
I decided that since I also suck at following instructions, I'd look for a sew-along on the internet. What's a sew-along? It's where a blogger, who can sew better than me, makes the pattern project, sets up posts that highlight each step, and often times gives invaluable advice during the process. I ALWAYS search for a sew-along or a crochet-along on a pattern project, whether it's a bag, a top, a quilt. If it's a printed, purchased pattern, ANYTHING I can do to potentially make fewer mistakes is worth it.
Searching for a Sailor Top sewalong is how I discovered Creativebug.com. It's where the Fancy Tiger ladies actually have a VIDEO TUTORIAL on this exact project.
I could not believe my luck.
I could not believe my luck.
If you are my friend, you know I have a serious Craftsy addiction. Come on, at-your-own-pace crafting classes I can do without leaving the house? This is my heaven. Creativebug is similar AND they have a two-week trial period so I was getting the class for free, which was nice because the class comes with a PDF version of the pattern, but I had already bought the paper pattern, so, potentially, if I bought the class I would have been paying for the pattern again.
If YOU wanted to try this pattern out, you could actually get the pattern AND the tutorial for free when you sign up for the two week trial at Creativebug.com. But if you aren't interested in a membership to Creativebug, you can also buy the class through Fancy Tiger for just $10.
If YOU wanted to try this pattern out, you could actually get the pattern AND the tutorial for free when you sign up for the two week trial at Creativebug.com. But if you aren't interested in a membership to Creativebug, you can also buy the class through Fancy Tiger for just $10.
Anyway, I usually hate PDF patterns because it takes forever to assemble and I inevitably end up with pieces that don't fit together....
BUT...
The PDF came in handy when I LOST a paper pattern piece. Yep. I lost it. I cut out the pattern then let the pieces sit out for a week before I continued the project. (ohhhhh, that's why you trace the pattern on Swedish tracing paper and not cut out the tissue pattern....) I mean, the pieces sat on the piano bench, which no one goes near, so I don't know HOW I lost one, but hey, I'm cursed when it comes to sewing clothing. Luckily, I could just print out the piece I lost because I had the PDF. I only had to print out two pages and I'm very pleased to say the pages fit together perfectly. So, thanks Creativebug.com. If it wasn't for discovering your website, I would have cried before I even traced the pattern pieces on the fabric.
BUT...
The PDF came in handy when I LOST a paper pattern piece. Yep. I lost it. I cut out the pattern then let the pieces sit out for a week before I continued the project. (ohhhhh, that's why you trace the pattern on Swedish tracing paper and not cut out the tissue pattern....) I mean, the pieces sat on the piano bench, which no one goes near, so I don't know HOW I lost one, but hey, I'm cursed when it comes to sewing clothing. Luckily, I could just print out the piece I lost because I had the PDF. I only had to print out two pages and I'm very pleased to say the pages fit together perfectly. So, thanks Creativebug.com. If it wasn't for discovering your website, I would have cried before I even traced the pattern pieces on the fabric.
The Garment Gods were on my side this week.
The video tutorial was so freaking awesome. It was SO AWESOME. I don't know how anyone learned anything before video tutorials. The paper pattern comes with directions, but, like I said before, I am not a detail oriented reader. However, I am a GREAT listener. I watched the shirt tutorial completely through before I began the project.
Because I am a beginner, there were a few things about the pattern that made me nervous: gathering and stitching in the ditch. I hate stitching in the ditch so much that sometimes I will spend six hours binding a quilt by hand instead of even attempting to stitch in the ditch on my sewing machine.
Sometimes people say things like, "Oh my god, you stitched this BY HAND? You're so talented!" But I really do it because I can't attach binding with my sewing machine without missing huge pieces of binding edge and I have to go back and sew parts of it by hand anyway OR seam rip half my quilt binding. I even have a fancy stitch-in-the-ditch foot for my sewing machine. I got the foot at Rocky Mountain Sew and Vacuum during a "Buy one sewing foot, get a second foot of equal or lesser value for ONE CENT sale" Can you believe that? ONE CENT. It was amazing. (sign up for their email list, seriously) But sadly, the foot attachment doesn't really make me better at stitching in the ditch.
The pinning tips in the video DID make me better at stitching in the ditch, the foot attachment made me look like I did it perfect....Which I like.
Stitch in the ditch foot. Please ignore the fiber build up.
Because I am a beginner, there were a few things about the pattern that made me nervous: gathering and stitching in the ditch. I hate stitching in the ditch so much that sometimes I will spend six hours binding a quilt by hand instead of even attempting to stitch in the ditch on my sewing machine.
Sometimes people say things like, "Oh my god, you stitched this BY HAND? You're so talented!" But I really do it because I can't attach binding with my sewing machine without missing huge pieces of binding edge and I have to go back and sew parts of it by hand anyway OR seam rip half my quilt binding. I even have a fancy stitch-in-the-ditch foot for my sewing machine. I got the foot at Rocky Mountain Sew and Vacuum during a "Buy one sewing foot, get a second foot of equal or lesser value for ONE CENT sale" Can you believe that? ONE CENT. It was amazing. (sign up for their email list, seriously) But sadly, the foot attachment doesn't really make me better at stitching in the ditch.
The pinning tips in the video DID make me better at stitching in the ditch, the foot attachment made me look like I did it perfect....Which I like.
So, when I get nervous during a sewing project, I tend to develop a white-knuckled death grip on my fabric and I start forcing it through the sewing machine and well, bad things happen, like I break sewing needles or sew through my fingernail (didn't know you could do that, huh? You can.) or stretch my fabric out.
Holy crap, it actually looks like a shirt!
But, listen. The Fancy Tigress that instructs the video has the most calm, relaxing voice. You may or may not know I'm a HUGE fan of ASMR (what's asmr?), and listening to this woman say in a calm and reassuring voice, "just take it slow" while stitching in the ditch or "that was hard, but it's over!" after gathering the shirt around the collar, well, it was relaxing. I know without it I would have ended up with a totally puckered, mismatched and stretched out shirt collar.
Thank you, wonderful woman who co-owns Fancy Tiger Crafts, for having such a tranquil disposition. During the video anyway.
I have no clue about her off-camera disposition.
But there were a few other awesome things. I learned soooo much. Keep in mind, when it comes to clothing construction, I am a novice, so these may be common-knowledge techniques I was just never exposed to, but DANG!! The gathering technique used in the pattern was amazing. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to gather a skirt, and after sewing it to the waistband, the gathers somehow disappear. It never occurred to me to use two basting stitches OR adjust my thread tension.
But there were a few other awesome things. I learned soooo much. Keep in mind, when it comes to clothing construction, I am a novice, so these may be common-knowledge techniques I was just never exposed to, but DANG!! The gathering technique used in the pattern was amazing. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to gather a skirt, and after sewing it to the waistband, the gathers somehow disappear. It never occurred to me to use two basting stitches OR adjust my thread tension.
gaaaaaaaathers......
I'm so excited about this top. It turned out better than I ever thought it would and I'm already picking out fabric for another version (at Fancy Tiger....in case Fancy Tiger ladies are reading this...ha!)
So here's my assessment:
Tracing/cutting the pattern is easy and straight-forward. The notches and gathering marks are easy to see/trace. Unless of course you get up to flip a record during the pattern-tracing process and forget to mark the gathering points. But that's not the pattern's fault.
I used the finished measurements for the hips to make my decision about size ( I made a large), since my hips are the largest part of my body. The pattern might suggest using the bust size, but all of my top-making disasters occur in my hip measurements. And nothing crushes the self esteem like a top that says it "flows at the hips" or "loose at the hips" and then when I put the shirt on, it's tight as heck, so I wanted to avoid that. That's when crying happens.
My hips measure 44 inches and the finished measurement for a medium was 44.5 inches...that just seemed a little snug, especially if I somehow messed up the seam allowance during construction, so I went with the large. I'm glad I did because it "flows" at the hips. The collar is a little big, but I will say that when I put the finished top on and did my size-checking moves (crossing my arms in front of my chest, sitting down and leaning forward with my elbows on my knees), everything felt really comfy. In fact, it was almost perfect. I think I will test out a medium though. Or maybe I'll blend the two sizes down the bodice, who knows?? Now that I feel confident in the construction of this top, I feel great about getting a little creative with it.
This is my first experience using a chambray fabric and I will never use quilting cotton again to make a top. It is just a personal choice, but chambray just gathered better. Because quilting cotton can be stiff, whenever I've gathered it in the past, it just balloons out. I like "a-line" style tops but sometimes they can be a little tent-ish and I feel the draping of the chambray help eliminate that. I'm gonna try a cotton lawn fabric next, I think.
And that, seriously, is the most important part. For the first time ever, I felt like I learned something useful AND could do the whole thing again without feeling overwhelmed.
And without crying.
So here's my assessment:
Sometimes your husband spills coffee on your pattern instructions.
Tracing/cutting the pattern is easy and straight-forward. The notches and gathering marks are easy to see/trace. Unless of course you get up to flip a record during the pattern-tracing process and forget to mark the gathering points. But that's not the pattern's fault.
I realized I forgot to mark the gathering point AFTER I sewed the yoke together.
I used the finished measurements for the hips to make my decision about size ( I made a large), since my hips are the largest part of my body. The pattern might suggest using the bust size, but all of my top-making disasters occur in my hip measurements. And nothing crushes the self esteem like a top that says it "flows at the hips" or "loose at the hips" and then when I put the shirt on, it's tight as heck, so I wanted to avoid that. That's when crying happens.
My hips measure 44 inches and the finished measurement for a medium was 44.5 inches...that just seemed a little snug, especially if I somehow messed up the seam allowance during construction, so I went with the large. I'm glad I did because it "flows" at the hips. The collar is a little big, but I will say that when I put the finished top on and did my size-checking moves (crossing my arms in front of my chest, sitting down and leaning forward with my elbows on my knees), everything felt really comfy. In fact, it was almost perfect. I think I will test out a medium though. Or maybe I'll blend the two sizes down the bodice, who knows?? Now that I feel confident in the construction of this top, I feel great about getting a little creative with it.
Second wear, washed and dried.
And that, seriously, is the most important part. For the first time ever, I felt like I learned something useful AND could do the whole thing again without feeling overwhelmed.
And without crying.
But I have to hold off on Sailor Top extravaganza for now because I am crocheting like crazy for my upcoming CRAFT FAIR!! Yep, I will be selling adorable stuffed animals and a few other things on July 10th at the Great Bar Bazaar! It's taking place at Roo Bar from 11-6 and will be featuring all kinds of hand-made awesomeness. I'll be splitting a booth with my friend Desiree, she has been making some super cute goodies. She has an eye for color that I am sooooo jealous of.
In July, I'll upload a more in-depth blog post about the craft show.
Cheers to tear-free crafting-- And if you try this pattern, I wanna see pictures!
In July, I'll upload a more in-depth blog post about the craft show.
Cheers to tear-free crafting-- And if you try this pattern, I wanna see pictures!
