Stripy Sewing

I’ve barely done any sewing for ages, I think this is the first garment I’ve finished since we started moving home over three years ago. I picked the material for this up from the Higgs & Higgs stall at the Festival of Quilts. My favourite shop-bought top to wear this year has been a Tremayne Quay top from Seasalt and I wanted to emulate the fit of that top in something sewn myself. I picked up the Boxy Raglan Top sewing pattern from Sew Different at the same show. It’s not an exact match for the Seasalt one but I felt it had the same vibes.

I like to take a lot of care with matching my stripes and I was definitely rewarded for that here. The raglan seams came out pretty much perfect.

I like making my own t-shirts because they can be that bit fancier than even very expensive shop bought ones but hemming jersey fabric is a pain. (I’ve never splashed out on an overlocker, kind of scared tbh!) This pattern however had a bias-bound hem which wasn’t something I’d tried before. I made my own bias binding from a fat quarter of quilting cotton I had lying around (well, one of many). It wasn’t entirely even and it was wider than the pattern suggested. It’s definitely a good hem though. The only thing I don’t like is that when you sew the binding down it’s the bobbin side of the stitching that appears on the top. But that’s never going to be noticeable to anyone but me and I’ll definitely use this technique in future.

The neck on this pattern is finished with a facing. This is the bit I’d change if/when I make the pattern again. The pattern is suitable for woven or knitted fabrics so the neckhole is relaxed enough to get your head through without needing the stretch of the jersey and I’d use a woven fabric for the facing next time as the insistent curl of the edges of the jersey is kind of annoying though it seems fine once the top is being worn. I also picked up some new Woven garment labels from Sew Different and sewed one of these onto the back neck facing.

The pattern diagram made me think the sleeves were shorter than they were. I wanted them to be about elbow length-ish so I added 10cm to the sleeves when I cut out the fabric. I actually ended up cutting 8cm off them before I hemmed them. They are very wide and having them longer just felt like too much fabric hanging around. They are actually elbow length now, next time I’ll probably just cut out the sleeves to the pattern. Also it doesn’t matter how much I press and iron the jersey fabric it’s still always going to look creased!

I’m really happy with this! The fabric is a lovely heavy weight, the pattern is simple but not basic, the hem’s good, the fit’s just how I wanted it to be and the stripe matching is 👩🏻‍🍳💋.

I remember having a conversation about sewing when I was a teenager with my mum (a sewer of her own clothes both then and now) and she remarked that t-shirts weren’t worth sewing because they were so cheap. Then I realised somewhere in my thirties that the better quality t-shirts I was now buying were actually worth trying to sew because they were more expensive to buy than the cheap ones I bought back then. The fabric for this t-shirt cost £24 compared to the £30 cost of the Seasalt one, plus then there’s the cost of the binding fabric even though I didn’t buy it fresh for this project. And also there is my time to make it but I do this for a fun hobby and consider that taking time is a positive not a negative. I’d much rather be sewing than shopping! This fabric is much thicker than the Seasalt one and feels better quality though theirs was organic cotton and I don’t think this is, which is a pity but it’s about the only negative point I can come up with. This one definitely feels like it’ll last longer.