I am becoming more confident with jersey sewing but my machine continues to misbehave and is inconsistent when it comes to stitching more than one layer of fabric.

Having resolved the problem of the stretching waistline on the bodice of the Bettina dress I noticed that I still had quite large pieces of the fabric left over. Could I squeeze out another tee top? By disregarding placement of the bold pattern I was able to cut a short sleeve tee using my TNT bodice/tee top pattern. The only differences to the pattern were that I deepened the scoop on the front neckline by approximately 1 inch and reduced the width of both front and back bodice pieces by 1 inch at the side seam hems grading up to nothing just below the bust darts. There was insufficient fabric for the long sleeves and in any case I had long sleeves on the Bettina dress so let’s see how it looks with short sleeves.

Print placement worked out quite well

The top was stitched together very quickly using the overlocker for all seams other than the stay-stitching around the neckline. I decided to have another go at binding the neckline. I cut a piece of bias fabric 2½” wide and stretched and pinned to the neckline at the stay stitching. This was then tacked before overlocking. I used the depth of the overlocked seam as a guide to turn the bias to the inside and pinned it in place prior to stitching in the ditch from the right side to secure. I then trimmed the excess bias with pinking shears.

Bias binding at neckline

It seems to have worked well so next time I will not cut the bias quite so wide and will overlock the raw edge close to the “ditch” stitching.

I now have 2 very personalised garments for the cost of just over £20.00 – can’t be bad.