The recent series of Great British
Sewing Bee had me glued to my seat, and following a flick through the GBSB book I
immediately bought it after spotting at least three garments that would float my
sewing boat, the Simple T-shirt being one of them.
The T-shirt has achieved a personal
best in that, the fabric was bought (at a Vintage stall) and made into
something in within two weeks. I have a bad fabric-stashing habit, and the only
reason it wasn't finished quicker was that the materials listed in the book were wrong, but more on that later.
So here's how it went...
First I traced off the pattern from the pattern sheet in a Size 12,
using baking paper and marked up each one, as I definitely plan to make this
again.
The instructions were really straight forward and by cutting on the
fold I had a front and back piece ready to stitch together after pinning.
The fabric I used was a lawn cotton with a slight 80’s twist and looked
very similar on both sides making it hard to identify the right side from the wrong. I marked
the initials WB for wrong back just so I didn’t sew it up wrong.
After sewing together the front and backs, I finished the seams using a
zig-zag stitch and moved onto the bias binding, which I found in my stash
although it could have been made from the same fabric using the instructions in the book.
The book dedicates a couple of pages to cutting and adding your bias
binding to you project in two different ways – concealed and revealed. The
methods use for the T-shirt top was the concealed method. I found the
instructions useful, but it seemed to lack a few key details such as how to join
the binding together! Also the length of binding in the materials list was 1.75
meters, which only covered the neckline and the sleeves, meaning I had to buy
another meter to bind the bottom edge of the top.
The first stage of applying the binding was to unfold the folded fabric
and pin on the right side of the
fabric, approx 0.5 cm away from the fabric edge to create a 1.5 seam allowance (that's the measurement between the first fold and the edge of the fabric).
Then ‘stitch in the ditch’ to attach the binding to the fabric.
Cut away the excess fabric to line up with the sewn edge of the bias
binding.
The fold the fabric over to the wrong side of the fabric and pin in
place, creating a neat concealed edge.
Topstitch along the neatened edge as close as you could possibly go. I
found it easier to stay around 3 mm away from the edge, which was as close as I
dared!
Finally topstitch the remaining bias edge down, which I did from the
right side using the 1.5cm plate line on my machine as a guide, but here's what the result looks like from the wrong side.
And there we have it a super summery T-shirt top!
Overall here's my pattern review scores:
How long did it take to make?
4 hours in total (over a few days)
How difficult was it?
Good for a beginner, as you get to use binding but you may need some extra help with the instructions.
And the fit?
I'm a size 12, but the neckline sits close to the edge of my shoulder and falls off. I'd cut a size 10 next time.
How does it look?
Pretty good. I'm wearing it out tonight!
And there we have it a super summery T-shirt top!
How long did it take to make?
4 hours in total (over a few days)
How difficult was it?
Good for a beginner, as you get to use binding but you may need some extra help with the instructions.
And the fit?
I'm a size 12, but the neckline sits close to the edge of my shoulder and falls off. I'd cut a size 10 next time.
How does it look?
Pretty good. I'm wearing it out tonight!
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