Hey Friends!! So, do you remember my last blog post where I mentioned upcycling a shower curtain using a zero-waste pattern?
Well, your girl here made a major mistake, so unfortunately the zero-waste pattern will have to wait until I acquire more fabric yardage. In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to have y’all join me while I sew up something else instead. While I’m not really set up to film videos for a sew-a-long, I certainly am capable of dry humoring you through my interpretation of sewing tutorials and hopefully dropping a few tips or new-to-you techniques for you along the way! Change your needles, grab a few yards of woven and the pattern I’m using here:
https://petitestitchery.com/products/adult-saffron-crop-top-dress?ref=anderson (affiliate link) or grab a cup of coffee and a snack and spend a few minutes with me!
First things first – what was this mistake I made? Well, like all textiles I intend to wear, I prewashed and dried the shower curtain. Why, you may ask? I prewash everything to remove dirt, debris, factory chemicals and excess dye, this shower curtain being no exception! How do I prewash and dry? It’s recommended to wash and dry on the settings you intend to use for regular laundering. For my initial wash I usually wash on hot with color catcher sheets and dry on high, just in case someone other than myself (like my dear husband) ends up doing the wash. The color catcher sheets soak up the excess dyes that would bleed into other clothes and drying on high minimizes any additional shrinkage that made occur once the fabric is turned into a garment. This friends, is where I went wrong. My shower curtain was 100% cotton, apparently not preshrunk cotton, and ended up shrinking. It shrunk so much in fact, that it was no longer large enough to be a shower curtain anymore, let alone large enough for the zero-waste pattern I had intended. But I digress, the show must go on. We are starting to transition into cooler weather here in MN, so I knew I wanted a pattern that afforded itself to the temperature fluctuations, but also something on trend for this Fall, so I began my hunt for a new pattern.
I really love the way the womens patterns from Petite Stitchery are drafted, (I usually have to make minimal adjustments) so that was my first place to look for a woven pattern. I ended up choosing the Womans Saffron Top. Exploring the options for Saffron, you can choose from a crop length top, a top with peplum length skirt or a dress in a mini or knee length. This pattern has two neckline options - scooped or a V-neck style, two style options for finishing the back bodice – scooped or button down, three different style options for the front bodice – 2 different colorblock styles or a simple, solid piece, and lastly, three different sleeve length finishes. This pattern is fully loaded!! For my Saffron, I used the simple bodice with front and back scoops for the neckline. And because peplums have made a comeback this year, I’m making the top with a peplum length skirt and finishing it off with ¾ sleeves.
Womens patterns from Petite Stitchery are drafted for the average height of 5’7’. If you choose to sew this up with me, be sure to take a look at the finished measurement chart to help you determine the best size for you. I stand at a proud and tall 5’2”, but I personally prefer the extra length in the torso, so I didn’t make any adjustments there. In fact, I didn’t make any height adjustments anywhere, including the sleeve length, so they did end up a little longer than they are intended. I can always go back and shorten them if they’re too bothersome though. My measurements put me in a size XL, but as I was reading the measurement guide, I decided that a size L would probably better suit me because of the amount of ease drafted into this particular pattern.
*Tip! When you are unsure of what size you should make, print or project your anticipated size, then one size larger and one size smaller. Find yourself a similar style of garment that fits you well, and compare the sizing of that garment to the pattern. I used the finished measurements in comparison to the T shirt I was wearing to solidify my decision for a smaller size. I also find this comparison method helpful when deciding where to grade my patterns too.
It is always, always, always in your best interest to sew up a muslin or toile anytime you are sewing a pattern for the first time. Please don’t use that special fabric you’ve been hoarding for years until you are sure you have perfected the fit of the pattern just for you! I was fortunate to end up with a wearable garment in the end. That being said, when choosing my size, I was concerned about the bicep measurement, so I opted to just print the XXL size sleeve for width, but kept the L size sleeve cap for the armscye. I’m going to suggest you don’t be like me, this is not the proper way to do a bicep adjustment! There is a handy tutorial for both an FBA and bicep adjustment conveniently located on page 8 that explains how to make these adjustments, should you need them!
*Tip! To keep my fabric pieces organized, I like to color code them with pins or clips. For this pattern, I used magenta colored clips for my main bodice pieces, lime colored clips for my bodice lining pieces, and blue colored clips to differentiate the back of my sleeve from the front.
Jumping right into the tutorial, our first stitching is going to be sewing the darts. Don’t let darts intimidate you!
*Tips! To ensure I have my dart legs perfectly aligned, I like to use straight pins. After pinching the front and back fabrics together to eyeball alignment, I poke through the top piece of fabric, run my pin along my mark on the bottom piece of fabric an inch or so and poke it back through the top piece of fabric. If my pin doesn’t fall on top of the dart markings, I pull it back out, shift my fabric and repeat the process until it does.
When I sew my darts, I start with the side seam of the bodice first using a stitch length of around 3. When I’m about 1/3 of the way along my leg, I decrease my stitch length to around 2, and then when I have about 1/3 of the leg remaining, I decrease again to around 1. Once I hit the fold in the fabric at the end of the dart leg where the apex is, I will continue to sew, on the fold, about another half inch or so. Those few extra stitches help smooth out the dart when you press it. Just make sure that when you sew the other dart you sew the same amount of length past the apex so your darts look symmetrical.
This tutorial instructs you to press the seam allowance for the darts down. I personally like to grade my seam allowances on my darts. I do this by trimming the seam allowance down to ½” and pressing the dart open.
We sew and press all four darts for the main and lining pieces. The next step for us is going to be sewing the bodice fronts to the bodice backs at the shoulders. This pattern is drafted with a 3/8” seam allowance included. These seams can be sewn on either a regular sewing machine or an overlocker/serger. If using a serger, I recommend you press your seam allowance for the main bodice to the front, and the seam allowance for the liner to the back (or vice versa) so when sewn together they “nest” to eliminate bulk. If using a sewing machine, I like to press the seam allowances open.
*Tip! When sewing with wovens, I usually grade my seam allowances. When you grade a seam, you are basically turning your seam allowance into layered tiers, which results in seams with less bulk. For this step for this pattern, this is achieved by slimming down the seam allowance of one side of the seams from the front piece and the opposite side of the seam allowance for the back piece. In this case, I trimmed the seam allowance pressed toward the front of my main bodice and trimmed down the seam allowance pressed toward the back of my liner.
Since I chose the scooped neckline and scooped back bodice options, I’m going to continue to step 10. I place my main and lining pieces together matching up the shoulder seams. I sew them together around the neckline with a 3/8” seam allowance, then finish that off by snipping into the fabric around the neckline about every ½” or so, being very careful not to snip through my stitches.
Did you know that by clipping the curves in woven garments you are actually creating some flexibility in that seam to help it stretch and relax?! Because most cotton wovens do not stretch and recover like knits, I try to ensure I’m not pulling my fabric through my machine while sewing, as this can lead to a stretched out seam. Sewing a stay stitch along the necklines and armscyes before constructing your garment can help minimize overstretching while sewing as well.
*Tip! Before moving on to adding the sleeves to my woven bodices, I like to baste my armscyes together to help prevent shifting and in this instance, to keep the darts on my main and lining bodices aligned. (Please don’t sew your armscyes together of you plan on doing a burrito roll!)
Picking back up at step 25, I’m starting to gather my sleeves. As you can see in my photo, I have color clipped the back of my sleeve cap with blue (and you can also see the funky grading along the seam because I didn’t do the bicep adjustment correctly!)
I started my gathering stitch about 2” above the curve of the armscye and kept that stitch around ¼” from the raw edge. If you decide to start higher up on the sleeve cap, the gathers will be tighter and lend to a poofier sleeve at the shoulder. I followed the rest of the instructions for pinning the sleeve to the bodice, but before sewing the sleeve in place, I used a longer straight stitch to baste the gathered sleeve into the armscye so the gathers wouldn’t shift, and then finished off the armscyes with my overlocker/serger.
*Tip! To help with easing the sleeve cap into the armscye, you may find it helpful to stitch two rows of gathering stitches instead of just one. That added row of stitching not only provides a safety net/backup thread should one of your threads snap while pulling, but it also helps the fabric lay flatter and make neater, more even gathers. Keep in mind, if you sew a row of gathering stitches outside of the seam allowance, they will be visible from the right side while the garment is worn and you’ll want to remove them.
Jumping back into the tutorial at step 28, we are instructed to sew along the raw edges of the sleeves and join the side seams of the front and back bodice, then hem the sleeves.
*Tip! To hem the sleeves in this pattern, we are to fold up the wrong edge ¼” and press, then fold
that an additional ½” and press. When hemming woven sleeves, I like to finish the raw edges of the sleeve at the wrist before pressing. If you use your overlocker/serger, you can use that stitch around the sleeve as a guide to press your ¼” fold, because the stitch width is ¼”! That extra stitch around the raw edge also helps the fabric from fraying during wash cycles.
Now that I have my bodice and sleeves sewn up, the only thing left to do is add the skirt (or in my case, peplum).
Starting from step 34, I followed the instructions as they were laid out, only adding that extra overlocked stitch across the bottom raw edge of the skirt before folding and hemming according to the instruction guide. I also placed my two rows of gathering stitches within the 3/8” seam allowance so I didn’t have to remove them later.
*Tip! After adding my gathering stitches, I like to mark the quarter points on both my skirt and my bodice - before I start to gather my skirt. I use the side seams as two points and then find the middle of those two points, both front and back, to determine my last two.
I deviated a little from the instructions when it came to gathering my skirt to the width of the bodice. I placed my bodice inside of my skirt, right sides together, and aligned the raw edges (the bodice went in the skirt upside down to achieve this) and I matched up all of my quarter points, essentially making 4 smaller sections to gather versus two longer sections.
I gathered the 4 sections of the skirt to the width of the bodice, then attached these together with a basting stitch first, locking in the gathers so they were evenly spaced, before finishing off that seam on my overlocker/serger.
The last step of the tutorial is to press the seam allowance of the skirt up toward the bodice and topstitch. Laugh with me, as I remind you to double check your bobbin thread so you don’t have to top stitch that seam twice!!
I love how comfy this top is and how versatile this pattern can be to customize the options for wear all year round! Just because these tricks work for me, doesn’t mean they will work for you and honestly, I may not be sewing the way you do or using these techniques the way they are fully intended but it’s okay to do what works for you and this way works for me! I’d love for you to share with me any tips you have for sewing up similar woven garments, knowledge is power, right!? Feel free to leave them in the comments here and don’t forget to share your Saffron makes with us over in The Sewing Hub Facebook group!
-Kim
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