SewNews HotPatterns 1137 Sewalong

The big news according to Scruff is – I’ve joined the Dark Side and bought a Mac. Hopefully, that means fewer issues! This is the inaugural Mac post…

 

SewNews magazine is hosting a sewalong of HotPatterns 1137, the Riviera Summer Breeze tie front sleeveless top.

HotPatterns 1137 Riviera Summer Breeze Tops pattern envelopeSince it’s summer weather, and I had the pattern, I’ve joined. This is week two, and we’ve chosen our fabrics, decided whether to convert the top into a dress, and cut out all our pieces, as well as stitched one seam.

The reviews of this pattern indicate that’s it’s pretty straightforward to put together.  Having made a least a few tops (and many bodices, in the construction of dresses), I thought this would be a pretty simple sewalong! So far, it’s been more of a challenge than I expected, and I was already anticipating issues with with my fabric, since I usually use less slippery ones!

Some things for folks to consider when choosing this pattern:

  • you need a really light, drapey fabric, but not sheer unless you plan to wear something under;
  • there are several “join this piece” “to this piece” pattern pieces. Tip: the sheets are in order and connect to the next page, and it seemed to work best if the paper edges were abutted, not overlapped at all;
  • the pattern pieces look really weird! You cut an entire front, that is very oddly shaped because there will be gathers in what ends up being a dart on one side, and then you cut the drapey part that goes over, which looks like a diagonal half of a bodice, instead of the more standard vertical half. So expect to look at this one a while if you have any fitting adjustments to make; and
  • speaking of fitting adjustments, in an attempt to get my me-made garments better fitted to me, I did a lot of futzing with this oddly shaped pattern. I won’t know til later whether my adjustments were effective.

The fabric:

Poly "hammered satin" charmeuse

A poly “hammered satin” charmeuse from my stash

A poly “hammered charmeuse” from my stash. My adjusted pieces are all cut out and awaiting the next task.

In the meantime, a sneak peek at another project I’ll be sewing at the same time (not literally, Scruff, and my fingers usually make it without being sewn together too):

100% cotton seersucker

100% cotton seersucker

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