Hello Internet friends!

Today I’m showcasing my first 2020 make, a lovely victory tank top made from a luscious viscose crepe from blackbird fabrics :)

If you’ve been following the blog for a while you’ll know that I have a love for a nice tank top, I find styling them in layers very easy which is essential for the sometimes variable weather here on the west coast (not to mention the very variable temperatures at my work place!) When chalk and notch released this pattern last year I knew that I would be making at least one of the V strap versions, with the hope that this pattern would fit great and turn into a repeat make in my wardrobe.

I real love the new trend I’ve been noticing with indie pattern makers where multiple cup options are offered, it’s really great to see designers embracing the diversity of body shapes and sizes in the maker community. For this pattern I settled on cup size b and a straight size 10 with no modifications and the longer length. Due to a shortage in my muslin supply I didn’t actually make a muslin of this patter, I decided to go straight for my viscose crepe and hope for the best, I figured worst case scenario I would have a wearable muslin.

Like most other sewists/knitters/makers I often use my hobbies as a way to decompress from a stressful situation or day, and normally this works out great! With this project, however, I think I was a bit too stressed out because I made so. many. mistakes. I sewed the the wrong seams together multiple times, I sewed one lining piece to one outer piece, I had to keep unpicking my stitching and serged edges, it was so frustrating!! Eventually I took a deep breath and did a little meditation after the 3rd or 4th wrongly sewn seam which seamed to set me straight, which is just a lesson in patience, persistence and taking a step back I guess.

Now by this point i had finally sewed the outer and inner lining pieces at the shoulder and, as the pattern instructions recommends, I threw on the top to test the length of the straps. I don’t know if it was because I was tried or just frustrated with myself, but I deemed that the top fit and that I didn’t need to make any other alterations. I then continued on with construction which was fairly straightforward, minus the part where the lining and outer layer are attached at the the underarm and you need to pull pretty much the entire top through the narrow straps. This required quite a bit of force and I was worried of tearing the fabric but it was all ok in the end, just a lot more patience and persistence to wiggle the majority of the fabric through the strap.

I was really excited to try the top on once I was finished, I had it stored on my dress form for a day or two before getting around to trying it on and was initially disappointed to find that the arm holes were too low and my bra was very visible, the side seam also was at an angle indicating that I had some extra length somewhere. to see if the strap length was the issue I pinned up the straps at the shoulder seam taking length from both the back and front of the top. This made a huge difference in fit, not only did my bra barely show anymore but the side seam hung straight. In the pictures below you can see the unaltered top on the dress form on the left and the altered one on the right, the front of the top has been raised and while it’s hard to see on any difference in the arm hole length trust me it’s there lol

I initially thought of taking apart the top and adjusting the should seam there but ultimately decided against it as it was difficult to try and invert the top through the straps again. So I simply pinned out the excess and hand sewed the excess fabric to the underside of the strap using a mattress stitch to keep things looking neat and tidy. Due to the fact that I had to pinch out around 1.25” on the strap, the width of the back strap is wider than the front so it’s noticeable that the two don’t match, however it doesn’t look that bad as the stitching has all been kept hidden so it kind of looks like a design feature :)

Overall I’m really happy with the way this top turned out! Once I made the adjustment the fit is great! I think I’ll probably take out a shade more length in the front of the top for my next version to make the fit perfect :D I also think I’ll add some thread chains to the underside of the straps to attach to my bra straps from peeking out.

I can’t wait to whip up a few more of these tank tops in the future (especially with some of the lovely cotton lawn I brought back from Japan last year)!. Hope all of your new year makes are turning out great!