Look what I did!
It's Maria Denmark's new downloadable pattern, the Day-to-Night Drape Top. This is a fun, quick, easy sew. Or at least it will be for you, if you are not so new at garment sewing as I am! It has taken me two days, and maybe about 7 hours, to get this far. That includes:
- Printing, cutting and taping pattern, reviewing measurements yet again and making final decision about what size to cut: 2 hours (I tend to overthink things)
- Trying to lay knit fabric out with a fold on the grain line, adjusting, adjusting again, ... giving up: 2 hours
- Basting a line of contrasting thread along the grain line, using that to make a fold on the grain (I didn't do this originally because it seemed like it would take "too long," and ultimately, it was faster, though still not completely succesful): 30 minutes each for the 2 pieces to this pattern
- Sewing: 1.5 hours
- Undoing and redoing 1 side seam to give a bit more ease: 30 minutes
I didn't have either foldover or clear plastic elastic to use for the neck/arms as called for in the pattern, but after reading the instructions, I didn't see why I couldn't use regular elastic in the same way as the clear plastic, so that's what I did. (Any ideas on why clear plastic would be better? Is it just aesthetic? Or does it hold up better in the long term? Please don't be shy - I love to learn!) I followed the instructions for sewing it to the wrong side of the neckline with a wide zig zag, then trimmed the fabric on the top edge to within the width of the elastic. Then, instead of folding the elastic over once to the inside (as the instructions direct), I folded it under twice so that the raw edge of fabric was completely enclosed. Then I stitched from the top with a somewhat smaller zig zag (as per the instructions). This does make a slightly bulkier finish, which I think is fine for the back neckline (it seems like a good idea to have something more substantial there), but I'm not sure it would be ideal for the armholes.
The other change I made from the directions was to sew a thin piece of ribbon into the shoulder seam to stabilize it.
As you can see from the slant to the stripes in the photos, even after my best efforts, I still didn't manage to get the pattern laid out completely on grain - or maybe the stripes are not printed on grain?
Based on my measurements, I cut a size M at the bust and graded out to an XL at the hips. However, when I tried it on after sewing just 1 of the side seams, I could see that it was going to be too clingy. Maria describes her knit top patterns as having negative ease at the bust but "skimming over the cuddly bits," which sounded perfect to me. And the pattern calls for jersey knits with drape, which is what I had. (I used a knit that I picked up for cheap so that I could practice sewing with knits - this is only my second knit garment attempt, but I think I am officially over my fear of knits!) However, my knit is extremely thin and extremely clingy, so for this garment, I needed more ease. I sewed both side seams as close to the edge as I dared, which I think gave me about an extra 1.5" total and seems wearable. But if I make this pattern again with such thin fabric, I will add even more ease.
And I still need to hem it. Because of the clingyness of my fabric, I am going to hem it shorter than I probably would have - although I usually like my tops with more length, this one doesn't need to cling any further down my hips than necessary! But I think I'm going to wash it and then hang it to let the fabric decide how it's going to fall before hemming.
I'm looking forward to wearing this top during the winter like this - I like the contrasting textures of the drapey neck, the fuzzy sweater and the sweater ruffle:
Conclusions:
- I like this pattern, and I will definitely make it again. I'd like to do it in a shiny fabric version, to truly live up to its day-to-night potential. Any difficulties I had with it are due to my inexperience, not the pattern itself.
- The directions are clear and easy to follow. (If you're an absolute beginner at working with knits, you'll probably need to do some research first. I found Dixie DIY's "Never Fear Knits" series to be very useful.)
- This was only my third-ish time printing and assembling a PDF pattern. It wasn't too time consuming for this simple pattern with two pieces. For larger, complicated patterns, I think I will probably prefer purchasing traditional paper patterns. I liked that there weren't any extra blank pages - when you lay out the grid, you see that there are some blank slots, but those pages aren't included in the print so you don't end up wasting paper. (Other PDF patterns I've looked at don't always make very good use of the paper.) One very small suggestion is that I would appreciate if the cutting lines on the pattern were labeled with the sizes.
- The pricing for Maria Denmark patterns seem very reasonable. I want to support independent pattern designers, but it's hard to look at $15 or $20 pricetags, when I know that McCall's will be on sale for $1 each this weekend at JoAnn's. I was happy to pay less than $6 for this pattern. On the other hand, I hope that the pricing is sustainable in terms of fairly compensating Maria for her work and enabling her to continue developing more great patterns.
