Racerback Adventure Tank

This afternoon, right before a gigantic thunderstorm, I asked my girl to do a photo shoot. I know. My timing sucks. The sky was dark and all the photos came out dark. No worries - photoshop to the rescue.

Last year I was on a sewing high and I planned to sew a lot of stuff but sadly I ran out of steam. One of the projects I never got to work on was this: I had already printed out and assembled the pattern for Racerback Adventure Tank by Fancy Tiger. This is not a free pattern so you'll have to google for a free one yourself. Recently I got a little sewing mojo back and I decided to once and for all get the Racerback Adventure Tank done. And I have the fabric. I had bought this jersey knit fabric which I found in the bargain bin at Spotlight ages ago. I don't know why I keep going to fish around the bargain bin thinking I'll find some treasure. Honestly, it's just remnants nobody wants. Still I bought this very soft jersey knit - less than 1 meter's worth because it's 50% off and jersey knit is expensive as hell.

What I like about this pattern is you only need the front and back plus 2 arm bands and 1 neck band. I mean how easy is this pattern? The fabric on the other hand is fabric from hell. It is so hard to work with. And it keeps curling. I think for my sanity, I need to buy some stay tape or whatever it's called the next time I work with difficult jersey knit.

The result? It is wearable but I made the biggest mistake. I had cut the wrong size for myself. I don't remember why I cut size S. I checked the sizing instructions, measured my body and yup, I had cut 2 sizes too small. I'm between M and L which makes my size a L. Surely 2018 Jane wasn't that much smaller than 2019 Jane. I'm aware that my upper body has become slightly larger this year because when I wear clothes I had made before, it feels a little tight around the chest. But to have grown 2 sizes larger - I can't accept that. So I'm going to put it down to human error. Maybe I was distracted.

So I gave the Racerback to my girl and it fits her! And she said she'll wear it.

I struggled quite a bit with the band. Firstly, you need to serge it together with the neck/arm. My serging skills are still hit and miss. I couldn't get the seam allowance even. For once, I really hate the grey thread on my serger. Don't even ask me to change thread - I'm that lazy. Yes, I know the easy way to change thread - tie old thread to new thread etc. But 4 cones of thread is too much work.

I don't have a cover stitch machine so I used a twin needle for top stitching. Not a regular twin needle but a stretch twin needle. It works but can you see the tunneling? Around the neck and arm, I think I can get away with tunneling.

When it came to the hem, no matter how I tried, I could not get the top stitch to look nice. The tunneling was awful. So I gave up the twin needle and switched to a stretch zigzag. This seems to work but looking at the curling edges on the wrong side just makes my blood boil. I should have serged the edges!

After I had completed sewing everything, I remembered that I have a stretch stitch balance dial on my sewing machine. I adjusted the dial towards "+" and tried hemming with some scrap jersey and yup, the tunneling is lessened a tiny bit but not completely gone.

I tried on the Racerback and if I hold my breath, I can get away with it. It looks a lot worse in person...

From the back you can see how small it is on me.

Will I make the Racerback again? Actually I might. I'll make size L and lengthen it. This Racerback has a slight flared bottom which I dislike. I hope I'll remember to take out the flare.