Back in March when Jen Beeman was in Nashville and we taught the Stowe Bag class at Craft South, I organized a little Saturday night sewing party with Anna Maria and a few of our mutual friends. I’d had plans to have something picked out and cut out ahead of time so I could just drink and chat and sew, but it didn’t work out that way. So instead I brought a piece of fabric I had little attachment to and a lot of, and an idea for a simple sleeveless top. When we all got there, I set about cutting out that top as quickly as possible, with Jen and Alexia both weighing in on my so-called pattern drafting as I did it. Somehow, even with adult supervision, I managed to draw the front neckline on both the front and back pieces of my pattern. At which point Lauren yelled out, “Just make it a V in the back!” which seemed like an excellent and time-saving solution. Having hurried through the drafting and cutting, I managed to nearly finish this in the few hours we were hanging out — all that was left at the end of the night was the hem and fixing the bias at the V where I’d botched it by paying more attention to the general hilarity than to what I was doing. So it’s been hanging around for about 10 weeks waiting for me to have 30 minutes to finish it, which I finally did on Monday night.
I also took a few minutes that evening to mend my all-time favorite pants, which developed a sizable rip in the crotch about a year ago. I’m all for visible mending, but am not in the habit of calling attention to my crotchular area, so I just used some sewing thread in a camouflage-y color and did a bit of random stitching to fill and bolster the blown-out fabric. And I’m so happy!! How did I live a year of my life without these?!
As full of mishaps and memories as the top is, I love it. When I cut it out, I was debating whether I wanted to split the hem and whether I wanted the back longer, so I just cut it really long and decided I’d figure it out when I went to hem it. But once I put it on, I decided I really like it just the way it is! I can always shorten it later if I want.
The fabric is a hemp-silk blend I bought for $7/yard at one of Elizabeth Suzann’s remnant sales. I think I have four or five yards of it, so plenty left to make a dress, or a skirt to go with this top. For the neck and armholes, I used some linen bias that I had cut once upon a time, thinking a pile of black linen bias tape might be a handy thing to have on hand, so that was a big time-saver. Thanks, me!
Pattern: self-drafted*
Fabric: Unknown hemp-silk remnant
Cost: no pattern + $7 fabric = $7
*Fancy Tiger has a muscle tank pattern publishing very, very soon with which you could no doubt sew a facsimile of this
