Trying a Tank Top

I have, quite accidentally, learned that tank tops are trendy right now.  While I don't care about trends, that did remind me that my supply of thrifted tank tops--worn as extra abdominal warmth layers in winter--is showing its age, so maybe I could try making a few?

I started with some of the leftover knit fabric the friend sent, smaller pieces of which I used for some sleep shirts.  The larger pieces of the fabric I still had weren't, mostly, much larger, so, instead of a traditional tank top, I tried a strappy style.

Specifically, it's the shirt from New Look 6766, which is a pattern I have used may times, but not for the shirt.  I suspect that, when I found it at a thrift store and decided to get it at all, I figured I'd never make the shirt.

Well, here we are. 

 

It works!

And by that I mean the shirt straps are thick enough to cover my bra straps, which is kind of impressive.

I didn't understand the directions for how to do the straps when I first read the pattern, but it clicked when I realized that the fact that everything is a knit would make it way more flexible than if it were woven...and then I realized it was, basically, my beloved "press the edges over before sewing, then flip the pressed edge around to cover the seam allowance from the unpressed edge."

Except.  I was not going to deal with trying to press this slinky thin super stretchy knit.  Turns out the strap is just the right width that folding everything to the center can be done on the fly.  I also modified the construction with my, again, usual approach of sewing it to the back first, then flipping it to the front and edge stitching. 

Edge stitching the slinky thin super stretchy knit, on the areas where it's not attached to the bodice, did not produce an optimum finish, but that's probably more to do with my relative inexperience with doing this kind of thing to knits than it is a complete fault of the fabric.  Other areas worked well enough.

Since I was working with limited, leftover fabric, the only way I could fit the front, in the size that seemed correct (12), on the fold in an area that was wide enough for the bust area meant I had to piece in some parts near the hem, where the fabric was cut away for what the original owner had made (which was a tank dress.  This fabric is being typecast.)

And, no, I could not have put that cut out area at the top and had it be in the armhole scoop area, because it wasn't wide enough  (I did experiment with that on the next one of these I tried.)

The narrow piece of fabric I was working with was long enough that I could cut the back in two pieces with a seam, instead of on the fold as the pattern wants.

I did borrows the center back seam contour shape from New Look 6068. 

This pattern wants a deep lower hem, to make a casing for a twill tape tie.  I didn't want to do that, so I traced a higher lower edge on the pattern...then ignored that and cut this full length, tried it on, and cut away the amount I'd marked.  Lesson learned!  (I wet back and actually folded that amount out of the pattern, instead of trying to cut under the tissue along the drawn line in the future.)

I had originally serged the bottom edge before folding it up and stitching, but in addition to that being longer than I wanted, it also made the whole hem feel a bit stiff, so I cut that all away and re-sewed everything without the serging.  I did each line of "mocking the appearance of cover stitching" separately, because, one, I don't have a twin needle, and, two, I always hear the echo of my college sewing instructor warning of the dire mistakes that can happen when twin needle stitching goes wrong.  Besides, I like doing top stitching.

I did choose this fabric because it coordinates with that patchwork skirt pretty well--yes, I have other tops that will work with it, but what's one more