Hi there, its been almost a month since I blogged but the truth of it is I have been on a bit of a slow sew of late. Life has been getting increasingly hectic and the pressures of keeping up with everything have been getting on top of me a bit. Sewing I often find is a pleasant release from all this, its a great way to clear my head of all the clutter, but sometimes it can feel like its just another thing stressing me out. Because of this I have been forcing myself to take a bit of time out when my head feels like it needs it rather than trying to force through that ever growing to sew list.
What has been nice though is that the project I have had on the go has been to use up some of the jersey knits that I've been storing to make up a bunch of basic tees. Its just been some nice, easy, uncomplicated, stress free sewing.
The pattern I used is the Knit Sweetheart top pattern from the book Gertie Sews Vintage Casual. I have made this top before, something I did early on after Fox cub number 2 which never made it to the blog sadly. The two versions I did make though have been in very heavy rotation in my wardrobe so I know that I like the fit and the way it looks.
I love the details on this pattern. The cap sleeves are just adorable and sit well on my slightly larger upper arms. The gathering on the neckline gives a really nice finish and looks great with a striped fabric, you can see an example of this further down. Finally I love the depth of the neckline, it has such a lovely low scoop which is definitely my preferred depth.
The pattern is easy to follow and the instructions are clear so its a very good starter for anyone new to jersey, or alternatively makes a great staple for anyone looking for a basic tee pattern.
One of the great things about this pattern is that the book goes on to give you lots of different ways to customise the pattern. You can see that I made a couple of versions where I omitted the gathering detail altogether which resulted in a plain jersey top with a lovely deep wide scoop. I also made some as cap sleeve and some as 3/4 sleeve. Sadly for pretty much all of them I didn't have enough fabric to make a long sleeved version but all these tops were made using just 1 metre of fabric or less.
The version below I made into more of a pullover style top using some lovely fleecebacked jersey. I widened the side and arm sleeves by 1/2 inch then used ribbing to do the neck binding and add some cuff bands to the sleeves.
I will give you more details about the fabrics I used below, though as I mentioned before this was a bit of a stash bust so sadly some of them will no longer be available.
Pattern: Knit Sweetheart Top from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual
Fabric:
- Rainbow - TSA Jersey Fabrics - a pre-order group so not available to buy sadly but its called Candy Stripes by Lilofant if you want to see if you can source some.
- Grey cat print - Stof n Stil but about a year ago
- Blue poly jersey - Croft Mill
- Fleece backed pink speckled jersey - Guthrie & Ghani
- Mauve and white stripe - Jelly Fabrics
Extras: Some rib knit for the pullover version
Modifications: 1/2 inch to side seems for pullover version, cuff sleeves added using a the piece from the lady skater dress but can be self drafted.
Fit: Great, I love the fit on this top, it works well tucked in or not
Difficulty: Easy
So whilst they took me quiet a while to do that's 5 tops in a month, and I really enjoyed the process of batch sewing. It was nice to just concentrate on one part of the process at a time and really take my time and not feel pressured to get stuff done. Sure there are a million things I would like to have sewn before Christmas but the truth is I don't need them and it feels nice to be able to let go of that self driven pressure.
Do you have a favourite pattern that you just make over and over because its suits your style and our life?
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