The Story of the Scoop Neck T
I am metric, born and bred. I am okay with inches but yards? No way. I can't even remember whether a yard is longer than a metre or visa versa. Useless. I have to look it up every time ... so, as you can imagine, US patterns send me into a bit of a spin.
Apparently I needed 1 3/4 yards of 58" wide cotton jersey. Well, I got a bit bamboozled by the maths and ended up with 1.5 metres of 80 cm wide cotton jersey. That turns out to be almost half as wide as I need. Whoops! For the briefest of moments I thought about buying more ... nope, it's a bit pricey anyway. Maybe a sleeveless top? Nope. I resolved to make it work.
At first I thought I'd need a seam up the middle of my back, but after measuring the pattern pieces against a top I like the fit of, I decided to make it narrower, but longer, through the sleeves and body. A bit of fancy pinning, cutting and figuring out and I managed to get it out. All without a seam down the back. Yay!
Apparently I needed 1 3/4 yards of 58" wide cotton jersey. Well, I got a bit bamboozled by the maths and ended up with 1.5 metres of 80 cm wide cotton jersey. That turns out to be almost half as wide as I need. Whoops! For the briefest of moments I thought about buying more ... nope, it's a bit pricey anyway. Maybe a sleeveless top? Nope. I resolved to make it work.
At first I thought I'd need a seam up the middle of my back, but after measuring the pattern pieces against a top I like the fit of, I decided to make it narrower, but longer, through the sleeves and body. A bit of fancy pinning, cutting and figuring out and I managed to get it out. All without a seam down the back. Yay!
The band for the neck is a bit of a mash but hopefully no one will notice in the flesh. I cobbled it together from three strips of fabric. There's the usual seam at the back of the neck but I've had to include two more, on either side of the front. You can see one in this photo at the top.
The kids were at the movies when I whipped up this top and in my haste to get it done before they got home I made a little boo boo. You see, the other day I'd seen this great tutorial for putting on a neckband and wanted to try it out. Simple enough. What I forgot to take into account was that the band would make my scoop neck scoopier. In the Craftsy pattern I used to base my top on, the neck band folds up into the scoop, making it higher and narrower. Mine folds down, over the scoop so that it's sturdy and neat on both sides, but deeper and wider. When I realised, I had a little freak out, but after trying it on I decided that it was actually okay. It's probably slightly bigger than I'd ideally like, but I can't do anything about it now .... I've absolutely no fabric left ...
As you can see I'm almost done. Just the top stitching and hems to go. It will only take a minute to do, but in my hurry I also broke my twin needle ...
I guess there's a lesson for me in here somewhere ;)
The kids were at the movies when I whipped up this top and in my haste to get it done before they got home I made a little boo boo. You see, the other day I'd seen this great tutorial for putting on a neckband and wanted to try it out. Simple enough. What I forgot to take into account was that the band would make my scoop neck scoopier. In the Craftsy pattern I used to base my top on, the neck band folds up into the scoop, making it higher and narrower. Mine folds down, over the scoop so that it's sturdy and neat on both sides, but deeper and wider. When I realised, I had a little freak out, but after trying it on I decided that it was actually okay. It's probably slightly bigger than I'd ideally like, but I can't do anything about it now .... I've absolutely no fabric left ...
As you can see I'm almost done. Just the top stitching and hems to go. It will only take a minute to do, but in my hurry I also broke my twin needle ...
I guess there's a lesson for me in here somewhere ;)