TAM #6

For those of you who may not be familiar with the term "TAM," it stands for Top-A-Month.  Several of us who are members of Artisans Square Stitcher's Guild have committed to sewing a total of 12 tops in the 2012 year, roughly one top per month.  This makes #6 for me.


Fabric is a silk, sorta a twill feel.  The fabric started out as a man's shirt.  I've gotten into thrifting more lately.      
I love silk shells for summer, and I've been able to find some men's silk shirts that provide enough fabric for a shell for only $3 or $4.  I've had trouble finding silk twill in any prints that I like on-line, and locally, forget finding any silk (except for maybe dupioni) at the two major fabric stores.

I loved this print when I saw it.  It will look good with my black linen capris and my gray rayon crinkle pants. Oh, and I have white capris that I seldom wear, but this top would look good with them when I do pull them out.

A couple of posts back, you will read that I made a pattern from one of my other thrifting finds.  I used that pattern for this top.  I draped a french dart (that replaced the original side bust dart) and cut it at top length.  I also scooped the front neckline more using the french curve.

Rather than just bind the neck, I decided to pull out my "trims" box.  This trim (as well as lots of my trims) were purchased at Pursley's in Duncanville. TX (which is now out of business--makes me sad!).

Here's how I did the neck trim.  Simply match the edge of the trim with the edge of the neckline (I used 3/8" seams throughout this top).  Sew close to the "piping" portion of the trim.  I just used my regular pressure foot and adjusted my needle to hug up to the piping.  Here's the result of that seaming.

Flip the seamline to the inside and topstitch.

Here's what the view from the wrong side.

Although this trim is not stretchy, when I gave it a good steam after sewing, it snugged right up to the curves along the neckline to lie flat.

I started another top yesterday from fabric that had been given to me (nothing thrifted), but it was not to be.  In addition to getting the square yoke on lopsided (yes I could have ripped and resewn) I managed to cut a small slit in the fabric next to the yoke (RIGHT IN FRONT) with the serger.  I wasn't feeling the love for the top at that point, so it hit the trash with no looking back.