Tank Map

About four years ago, I made a shirt that mixed other fabrics with the small amount of an extremely late 80s/early 90s map print cotton(y) jersey.  I went on to wear the shirt just enough to realize that the shape was very wrong for my tastes and layering propensities.

I kept the shirt because I did still like the ridiculous print, and I eventually moved it out of my closet and into the fabric stash, as much for potential re-use of the print part as because I was not going to just give away that much black rib knit.  I can use that stuff.

Now that I've added the tank top from New Look 6766 to my sewing repertoire, I have a potential use for small yardages of knits.  I dug out that shirt and found that I could just barely (it would need minor piecing at the hem again) squeeze the body of the tank top from the map knit in the shirt.

(the black rib knit used here was not that which was used in that shirt, but instead something thinner.)

Trying a Tank Top 2

Some of the improvisations needed to make the previous project were prompted by the narrowness of the fabric I was working with.  I liked the result, and turned to another long narrow piece of fabric, supplied by the same acquaintance, for a second try.

This leftover fabric was not the same length as the first, so I wasn't going to be able to cut the back as two pieces, and the width was such that I definitely couldn't cut the front on the fold

Not, at least, in size 12.

I referred to one of my worn out thrifted tank tops, and realized that, while it fit fine, it was very narrow when on its own.  The fabric I wanted to use next was extremely stretchy, so I decided to try making a very narrow version of the New Look 6766 tank top.

 

 Did I mention it was narrow?

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!

A More Traditional Kind of Patchwork Skirt

If there is a quintessential example of my approach to patchwork--heavier fabrics, relatively structured--it would probably be the long A-line skirt I made last summer.

I decided I would put aside my propensity for structured patchwork and try a more "normal" approach of sewing strips of squares and gathering them into tiers for a skirt.

It worked out nicely.

3263: The Destination (for now)

So, when I made the button up shirt with the madras and doll print, I was hoping I'd have enough of the doll print left to eke out a hacked Burda 7831, but, no.  I almost set the last piece of the doll print aside for patchwork, but then, no.  I still really wanted a simple little shirt made from it, something I could wear under a cardigan.  (Why was the vision of a cardigan so strong?  Dunno.  But it was.)  And that's what prompted me to figure out fit adjustments for Simplicity 3263.

Although...there still technically wasn't enough of the doll print left, so I shortened it by 3½" 

 

 It works.

3263: Tweaking

 I made some of the changes mentioned in the previous post and ended up here

 

 The changes did help!

3263: The Hacking Begins

I re-acquired a vintage pattern I'd once had, in what is nominally my correct current size, and I was...not happy with how it fit out of the envelope.  I resolved to try tracing and altering the pattern, and then did not do that for a few months.

Here's the first try

 

I probably spent as much time trying to decide which fabric I'd be OK with not working out as I spent making the first round of pattern edits—which turned out surprisingly promising.  Still not sure about that print.