At the end of making the Dartmouth Dress hack using this charming printed Ponte from The Textile Centre I had approximately 70 cms left over. What to do with it?

In my stash I had recently discovered some remnants of plain Ponte in various shades of Teal, Red and Black. There was just sufficient of the Black colourway to make sleeves and I would use the printed Ponte for the body of a Tunic. Originally I had thought I would trial yet another raglan sleeve top but decided against that as I really wanted to be assured of a successful outcome for this final piece of Floral/Shutter border print. So yet another version of the Plantain Top by Deer and Doe it was to be.

I laid out the bodice front and back and cut them as long as possible from the printed ponte, followed by the sleeves and neckband from the plain Black ponte. The only adjustment made to the pattern was to raise the centre front of the neckline by 1¾ inches as previous versions had finished up dangerously low!

Construction was plain-sailing. I have left vents at the side seams and the final version has a high/low hem with the front being slightly longer (to accommodate my bust).

The completed garment looks great worn with Black skinny jeans or leggings.

In the previous post I mentioned that I had some small sequinned jersey fabric bought from Fabricland at just £1.79/m I cannot praise this fabric highly enough. It sewed like a dream!

Hot on the success of the Aubergine jersey trousers * made from Simplicity 2289, I have now completed the ensemble with a co-ordinating tunic top.

The previous endeavour with the Plantain top by Deer & Doe was not a great success but I could see that there was great potential and having made a few adjustments to the pattern I set about making my second Plantain.

To begin with a cut a bodice front and back from the Aubergine jersey as I could see that the sequinned fabric was too fine to be worn without something underneath. I cut the pieces with a 4 inch extension to the length.

Having stabilised the shoulders, I stitched with the overlocker and then top-stitched with the twin needle. I then sewed up the side seams leaving an 8inch opening each side for the hem vents.

I tried on this ‘lining’ to check fit and it was ‘just right’.

Now onto the sequinned jersey. Having learned from the previous sequinned fabric, although there was a lot more stretch in this particular fabric, I cut a little extra width on the bodice front, back and sleeves.

Next step was pinning the lining at the neck edge and armholes. I had put the tunic onto Dolores the mannequin and it made this task much easier. The two bodices were then basted together.

For the neckline binding I repeated the trick of using the non-sequinned selvedge area cut 2 inches wide x the length required for the neckline. The binding was folded in half and stitched to the inside of the neckline before folding over the raw edge and top-stitched in place. A very neat finish.

As before, the sleeve seams were stitched and inserted into the armholes. I was able to use the overlocker and the insertion went like a dream. Love it when that happens! 🙂

The sleeves have a narrow single-turned hem stitched with the twin needle but I have left the hems on the lining and tunic front and backs as raw edges. The length of the lining has been trimmed to approximately ½ inch shorter than the sequinned overlay.

I am absolutely delighted with how this top has turned out – I originally purchased 3 metres and there is about 20 cms left. So a beautiful evening tunic for less than £10.00!

My new  Sequinned Plantain Tunic Top

* In my previous post I stated that the jersey for the trousers and lining of this top came from Minerva Crafts. Unfortunately this is incorrect. The fabric came with a massive haul bought online from Fabricland. As far as I can tell it is no longer offered on their website but I am pretty sure it was the same as that offered by Minerva Crafts and detailed in the previous post.

I purchased this really ‘in your face’ sequinned fabric from Fabricland in early December. With the departure on a cruise to the Caribbean coming up fast thought I had better get on and sew an evening tunic to go with the Black wide leg trousers.

At the time of purchase I did not know which pattern I would be using and so purchased 2 metres at £6.99/metre. Having browsed through my selection of PDF patterns I decided that I would use the Plantain top from Deer & Doe.

This is described as a T-shirt fitted at the shoulders and flaring at the hips, with optional elbow patches. Short, long and 3/4 sleeves are included in the pattern. I had plenty of fabric, cut out view A in size 52 and excluded the elbow patches. Only alterations were to reduce the sleeve length by 4 inches and extend the length, also by 4 inches.

Pinning the fabric was a challenge. I did not want to pin through the sequins and so had to be very careful with pin placement into the jersey fabric between them. I stabilised the shoulder seams with some narrow fusible Vilene ® interfacing. As I did not want to feel the scratchy edges of the sequins on the inside, I made a faux flat fell seam which effectively covered the sequins and made a nice flat seam.

Next was the neckline binding. I was nervous about this but decided to cut some of the un-sequinned selvedge fabric which is the base ‘carrier’. A fine knit that was very stretchy and so great for a narrow neck binding. I lightly pressed the binding in half and then ran a row of overlocking stitches to keep the raw edges together. In effect the binding was ‘gathered’ onto the overlocking stitches but that was fine as I gently stretched and pinned the binding to the WRONG side of the neckline. Taking a ¼ inch seam, I then turned the binding to the RIGHT side and top stitched in place. I am really pleased with the way this has turned out.

At this point I did a test run on the overlocker and found that there were no problems using the machine on the sequinned fabric. Setting in the sleeves was straightforward. Although the notches did not match up with the armscye it did not matter as the sleeves went in beautifully.

Now the side and underarm seams. I left 8 inches open at the hem and overlocked the entire seam from that point to the underarm and down the sleeve seam. As the ‘carrier’ fabric is jersey there was no need to hem the sleeves or the hemline of the tunic. I simply cut level with a row of the square sequins.

Now I tried on the tunic. Oops! The sleeves are very tight and this is when I discovered the fatal error. What I had not taken into account was the fact that although the ‘carrier’ fabric is jersey, the sequins have NO stretch and therefore restrict the stretch of the jersey. I should have enlarged the pattern the to take this into account!

I can wear the tunic but it is not comfortable. My husband does not like the top as he feels it is too glitzy! He is not wrong!

Teal Sequinned Jersey Plantain Tunic

A valuable lesson learned. I have adjusted the pattern and will certainly make it up again. I like the flare over the hips, the extended length and the lovely shaped neckline. So onwards and upwards…..

Oh well, perhaps I should not have attempted sewing when feeling a little under the weather. I thought that as I was using my TNT Paola top pattern, all would be OK. How wrong I was. Those of you that have followed my blog will know that I have made up this pattern ‘hundreds’ of times!

Two metres of Cotton Spandex from Girl Charlee at a cost of £15.96 so not cheap. The fabric had been laundered and was waiting near the top of the stash pile so I waded in with pattern and scissors at the ready!

Standard construction. Narrow cuffs on the sleeves, twin needle stitched hem on the bodice. How is it that the Paola has not turned out as I expect? I have lengthened the top by 3 inches but other than that no other changes. Is it the colour? Have I come to the end of my love affair with Polo-necked tops? I don’t know. The top needs a good press and maybe to be teamed with a terrific pair of trousers, stunning skirt or charming Cleo dungaree dress. We shall have to wait and see.

Taupe & White Broad Striped Paolina Top

Back at the tail end of the year I bought several metres of various jersey fabrics (no change there then!). This wide stripe in Taupe and White is 1½ metres purchased from Fabrics Galore at a cost of £6/metre. The challenge for this project was to get the stripes to match across the bodice with the sleeve heads and also at the side seams. I think that I have just about achieved the goal. 

The top is made using my TNT Paolina pattern, a hack from the Paola turtle neck by Named. There was ample fabric to make the long sleeves and shirt tail shaping to the bodice front and back. The neckline shaping was cut freehand so is possibly a little higher than I wanted. To avoid any ‘colouring outside the lines’ for the neckband, I opted to cut the fabric lengthwise so that the stripes on the neckband are at right angles to the horizontal stripes on the bodice. Maybe next time I work with stripes I will take up the challenge and cut the band crosswise.

There is not a lot more to say about this make – hems on the bodice and sleeves are stitched with a twin needle and because of the shirt-tail shaping given a good press.

I plan to wear this top with White Capri-length trousers so can’t wait for my holiday to warmer climes!

For some time now I have been on a quest to find my ideal raglan sleeve bodice pattern.  So far I have stitched McCalls 6754 which was OK but the sleeves were very wide and the neckline quite low. Not insurmountable problems but not yet my ‘Go to’ pattern. I have also tried the Lekala 5656. Again the pattern was not quite right. This time the fit at the underarms was tight and again not an insurmountable problem. I think I will probably re-visit the pattern at a later date.

Lekala Pattern                                        McCalls 6754

Meantime, I have just made up the Blank Slate Rivage Raglan.

For the wearable toile I used some remnant of Dark Teal Ponte Roma that has been hidden at the bottom of my stash for some 20 (yes twenty!) years. Checking the measurements on the pattern I cut out the XXL size. The original pattern is drafted with a high-low hem but I cut mine the same length at both front and back. I had insufficient fabric to cut the sleeves full length and instead cut wide double cuffs to bring the sleeves to ¾ length.

Close up of the sleeve cuff

I top-stitched the cuffs and used a twin-needle for the hem of the garment. I ignored the pattern piece for the neckband and used my TNT method. 

close up theneckband

Really too big Rivage

The finished tunic is too big! The neckline is very wide and the sleeves are also too big. On the plus side, with the weight of the fabric and the ‘A’ line shaping, the body of the Rivage is ‘trapeze’ style and has a pleasant swing to it.

Another item that will probably sit at the back of the wardrobe until it ends up on eBay or in the charity bag!