Hi again!
Today's projects is a fancy/fun/fabulous top.
I'm going to a music festival in a few weeks, which led to me looking at heaps of festival fashion, and wondering what on earth I'll wear. Of course, I could have gone through my cupboard, but being me, I went through my bag of fabric instead... and found this:
An old dance costume. Not exactly music-festival worthy, as it is. But, spoiler alert: it becomes this!!
Very cute. Much more festival-y than its previous incarnation as a strange sparkly sack. So, 'how to?', you ask?
Materials:
scissors,
chalk,
pins,
needle and white/blue/grey thread,
and sparkly fabric!
(you can just as easily start with a sheet of fabric as with an old costume, in which case you probably want a piece about 50cm x 2m, in order to have plenty of length to tie at the back. This might involve sewing two pieces together, but avoid having a seam at the front- if you sew the two into a wide tube, so the height of the cylinder is 50cm and the circumference 2m, then you'll be working with the kind of sack I have here :))
And, the steps:
1. Put on the dress or hold the fabric up to neck, and mark a line with the chalk at the height you want the neckline, and another where you'd like it to end at the bottom. Always leave a little more fabric than you think you want- you can always cut it off later to get a more cropped style! Make one last mark a bit below the armpit.
2. Snip snip! cut a nice straight line across at the neck height, and another at the waist height. The sequins on my fabric are in rows, so I can just follow one row right across for an easy straight line. At the back, you aren't going to want it at waist height, so you use the armpit-height marking to cut across the back half of the tube. It should look something like this...
Mine has those diagonally cut corners already, thanks to me starting with a dress, but they aren't necessary yet.
3. Snip again! This time, right down the middle of the back, so instead of a tube you have some kinda 2m-long strip of fabric that you can tie around yourself. Fashion.
4. Seriously though: fashion! Try it on! With a little imagination, it's starting to look like a top!
5. Get your chalk out again- now is the time to decide how wide you want the top edge to be- mark it out, leaving a row of sequins extra on either side, and draw a on the line you'd like between this high neck, and the armpit. Then lay it out, neaten up that line, and snip snip! In order to get it symmetrical, just cut one side first, fold it in half, and trace that line onto the other side.
6. And try it on again! A bit repetitive, I know: draw, cut, try it on, repeat, repeat. But it's worth it. See what you think of your neckline. For a very neat edge, you can now fold over a slim hem, both across the top and down these angled sections. You can vary the width of the hem in order to get your ideal neckline- that difficult balance between aesthetic and hiding your bra. Pin the hem while you have it on, so you can see how it will look. To make this step easier, I used a ribbon scrap as a temporary halter neck, simply by safety-pinning it on.
7. Sew your hem! you only need to sew the top edge of the top, from armpit to armpit, because the rest will be tied in a loose knot at the back, and you wont notice a tiny bit of fraying. This kind of fabric seems to barely fray anyway! Since its a short distance, and a tricky fabric, I just sewed it by hand, with long lazy stitches.
8. The halter neck..... coming in part 2! Because first, I need to go out and buy some silver ribbon. I didn't plan that far ahead. But it's looking good so far!
Today's projects is a fancy/fun/fabulous top.
I'm going to a music festival in a few weeks, which led to me looking at heaps of festival fashion, and wondering what on earth I'll wear. Of course, I could have gone through my cupboard, but being me, I went through my bag of fabric instead... and found this:
An old dance costume. Not exactly music-festival worthy, as it is. But, spoiler alert: it becomes this!!
Very cute. Much more festival-y than its previous incarnation as a strange sparkly sack. So, 'how to?', you ask?
Materials:
scissors,
chalk,
pins,
needle and white/blue/grey thread,
and sparkly fabric!
(you can just as easily start with a sheet of fabric as with an old costume, in which case you probably want a piece about 50cm x 2m, in order to have plenty of length to tie at the back. This might involve sewing two pieces together, but avoid having a seam at the front- if you sew the two into a wide tube, so the height of the cylinder is 50cm and the circumference 2m, then you'll be working with the kind of sack I have here :)) And, the steps:
1. Put on the dress or hold the fabric up to neck, and mark a line with the chalk at the height you want the neckline, and another where you'd like it to end at the bottom. Always leave a little more fabric than you think you want- you can always cut it off later to get a more cropped style! Make one last mark a bit below the armpit.
2. Snip snip! cut a nice straight line across at the neck height, and another at the waist height. The sequins on my fabric are in rows, so I can just follow one row right across for an easy straight line. At the back, you aren't going to want it at waist height, so you use the armpit-height marking to cut across the back half of the tube. It should look something like this...
 |
| neckline....................................armpit height back line.......................................tube! |
Mine has those diagonally cut corners already, thanks to me starting with a dress, but they aren't necessary yet.3. Snip again! This time, right down the middle of the back, so instead of a tube you have some kinda 2m-long strip of fabric that you can tie around yourself. Fashion.
4. Seriously though: fashion! Try it on! With a little imagination, it's starting to look like a top!
5. Get your chalk out again- now is the time to decide how wide you want the top edge to be- mark it out, leaving a row of sequins extra on either side, and draw a on the line you'd like between this high neck, and the armpit. Then lay it out, neaten up that line, and snip snip! In order to get it symmetrical, just cut one side first, fold it in half, and trace that line onto the other side.
 |
| It's hard to see, but I've made to marks for the width of the neck. Then there's the snipping. |
 |
| My neckline test, with bonus halter neck. Pinning and sewing the hem to my liking! |
7. Sew your hem! you only need to sew the top edge of the top, from armpit to armpit, because the rest will be tied in a loose knot at the back, and you wont notice a tiny bit of fraying. This kind of fabric seems to barely fray anyway! Since its a short distance, and a tricky fabric, I just sewed it by hand, with long lazy stitches.
8. The halter neck..... coming in part 2! Because first, I need to go out and buy some silver ribbon. I didn't plan that far ahead. But it's looking good so far!
