One Hour Top

I rarely buy knit fabric because the price is ridiculous. A long, long time ago when I first started making bags I bought a piece of fabric with a lot of stretch. Before I learnt to make bags, I had already learnt to sew garments. So I understood grain and stretch yet I made a rookie mistake using stretch fabric for bags. Well, before long, the mistake became clear. My bag was stretched longer and longer and of course I never made the mistake again.

Last year, I sort of became interested in making garments again. I haven't thrown myself into it wholeheartedly because I already have a lot of clothes. But I do own a serger and I feel it's such a waste to let it sit on my sewing table. I looked around for an easy pattern to sew. I settled on Fancy Tiger's One Hour Top because it's a one hour commitment. I figured the one hour did not include printing and taping the pattern which I had done a few months ago. All I needed was knit fabric which I finally bought during a sale in October. I almost did not get the discount because the sales assistant was ignorant. When I asked why the fabric was not discounted despite it being tagged a sale item, she stupidly said: because it's from Europe. It sounded like a fake reason so I went to look for another sales assistant. Yep, I got a 20% discount. I find that when it comes to fabric buying in Singapore, I need to open my mouth and demand for a discount even when there are a hundred signs in the shop shouting 20% discount.

I opted for size S.

By the way, the pattern is free and you can get it here. No need to sign up for anything.

I serged all the seams. Since I bought my serger, I've never changed the needle. Well, after testing the fabric on the serger, I realised I needed to change the needle. The ones installed made huge tears in the fabric. I needed to switch to a fine needle. I went to youtube but couldn't find any needle installation for my machine. Finally I dug out the manual and the instructions were quite clear so I decided to try it. I was quite nervous because I'm not comfortable with my serger. So far it has always worked for me with very minimal changes. I've been very lucky.

Fortunately there was a needle holder which came with the machine. I bravely unscrewed the two needles and I put in size 11. Right away I gave the serger a test and it worked. I felt so good I  patted myself on the back. Change serger needles, checked.

Sewing the top (including cutting fabric) takes an hour or less. I only had some trouble with sewing the hem and collar. I was going to use twin needle to topstitch but the ones I have don't work on stretch fabric so I had to use the stretch stitch on my sewing machine.

I wished I had done something better for the collar instead of simply folding over and hemming it. Maybe a bias binding? The collar looks a bit weak and I fear it will collapse after a few wash.

Hubs took some pics of me in the completed outfit. I matched it with an old pair of Dorothy Perkins shorts. This is the only pair of black shorts I own apart from running shorts. I think it's time I make myself a proper pair of jean shorts.

As usual, I tried to clown around.

But hubs kept saying No, No, No.

I believe this photo captures what the One Hour Top is. A blouse that looks good only when your arms are stretched out. Of course I can't walk around like a scarecrow.

I particularly don't like all that amount of ease around the armpit. Me thinks this design is more suitable for a bustier woman. I'm flat as a runway so...

My solution was to wear the top with the sleeves scrunched up.

If I were to make this top again although I probably won't, I would go down to size XS, make it longer with the bottom of blouse a lot tighter and the end of the sleeve more fitted.

What do you think? Pass or fail?

4th UFO completed. A very small yay.