Thursday 18 September 2014

Non-quilty Guest Post

Hello everyone!
Adrianne has been super busy doing lawyer things this week/weekend/all the time so she asked if I wanted to sew something so that she had some content. I'm pretty sure she was joking but nevertheless here are some pictures of a top I adjusted in a fairly slap-dash manner.

If you buy clothing online like I do, you'll know that it can be a bit hit-and-miss in terms of how things fit and what they actually look like in your hands. This top is actually from a local chain (Glassons) but you got a discount for your first online order and since I was going to buy it anyway I figured I may as well get it for a bit less. It's a t-shirt in style but it's made of a non-stretch silky polyester. It has a cute print of little stars, crabs and sharks on it BUT it's quite long and made for a lady with rather different proportions to me. Thus, its fits weird: 

Bad.
So tight.
Why.

I've been wearing it tucked into stuff at the waist but I don't get that much use out of it because I can't just wear it with anything. I've been adjusting a few things lately and decided this probably wouldn't be too complicated of a project. 
It has a stepped hem with a little 3" split up the side which was handy as it meant that I could just move the start of the split up a little bit, trim a few inches of the bottom (lucky it was long to begin with) and the split would leave me hip room. 


I unpicked the sides a random amount, tried it on an then marked where the split would start. Having a sewing obsessed sister who has everything including the sewing machine you learnt to sew on made everything quite easy. I sliced the extra fabric off with her rotary cutter and it was so much easier than marking a line and snipping with scissors. The fold from the side seam meant I could just stitch these down to re-form the split and then I hemmed the bottom with your basic fold-twice-then-sew technique.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, I'm definitely not an expert and I (mostly) know my limits. I never try to do anything with knits 'cause that stuff is tricky! Now that disclaimer is out there, the results:
The comfort.

The freedom. I did actually iron it...


I'll be back on Saturday with some cat pictures.
PS it's Adrianne's birthday - wish her a happy one!

12 comments:

Camilla said...

Nice to meet you Jennifer! The top looks great and now useful YaY. Look forward to more guest posts from time to time!

Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl said...

Oh, the fit looks so much more flattering on you now! Well done! And happy, happy birthday Adrianne! :)

Charlotte said...

looks fab! And Happy Birthday Adrianne :-)

Wendy @ Wendysquiltsandmore said...

Well done! I've found that with a few tops lately - they are too tight across the hips.
Happy Birthday to Adrienne. I hope she's not too busy to start her block a day quilt tonight (or maybe it starts tomorrow?) Usually the first few days or weeks are quite easy when you commit to something this big, but it looks like she will be facing time pressure in the very first week. Perhaps no party drinks tonight until that first block is made?

RobotMomSews said...

Nice job!!! Much better! I LOVE the little sharks!! Happy birthday Adrianne! :)

Rachel said...

Love your modifications Jennifer! So much better! Maybe you'll take up quilting next? I bet Adrianne has some fabric you could use!

Martin said...

Nice work Jen, and Happy Birthday Adri!!

Lea said...

Good job! Happy Birthday Adrianne!

Erica Jackman said...

Happy birthday Adrianne!

jeifner said...

Good looking top that you've made even better, more flattering and cool. Nicely done! And Happy Birthday Adrianne!

bee said...

nice job! clothing 'fixing' is a little beyond me. Happiest of birthdays Adrianne!

LethargicLass said...

Great post unnamed sister :) And happy belated dear Adrianne!!