Seamwork Bo Top

Pattern/Technique: Bo box top by Seamwork, size 18

Modifications: Shortened length by 1.5”

Materials: 1.75 yds (44” wide) Ruby Star Warp & Weft Holiday

New skills: Bias facing

Lessons: When attaching the cuffs, the instructions tell you to topstitch (aka not in the ditch of the seam, but offset from the seam), so you want to align the inner cuff with the line of stitches, rather than overlap it.

Collar staystitch should be a scant 1/4” (some of mine was visible below the seam because I wasn’t accurate.

When making bias tape with a bias tape maker, it’s important not to pull on the fabric tape itself (or drag your iron over the folded edge while you’re pressing it) , which will cause it to stretch out and not fold correctly when being fed through the tool. Instead, just pull on the tool and repeatedly press and lift your iron in little sections.

What I'd do differently: I’d like to work on making the spacing more even on my topstitching by slowing down my sewing speed.

I'll only shorten the top by 1”. On the bottom hem I could only do the 1.5” fold before I hit the same length as the Torrena box top, so I serged the raw edge instead of doing the 1/4” fold to hide it.

Care: Machine wash cold, dry flat.

Ninni Culottes 03

Pattern/Technique: Ninni Culottes by Named, size 50

Modifications: No mods. Used the Zanzibar pocket tutorial (see last Ninni post) that I saved to my Drive (Resources folder).

Used 1 1/4” woven non-roll elastic, cut to 37” with 1” overlap to get a 36” waistband. Added zigzag (2.1W and 2.0L) topstitching at 1/2” from top & bottom of waistband, which resulted in a final circumference of 38”.

Materials: 2.75 yds (44” wide) Ruby Star Warp & Weft Holiday.

New skills: n/a

Lessons: Add bartacks on the edge of pockets after sewing the pocket pieces together. The bartacks will make it hard to get your needle all the way to the edge of the pocket.

I used Wondertape to baste each of the pocket pieces in place on the outside seam which worked great; I was also extra careful to position the tape at the very edge of the flat pocket piece so that the adhesive would be in the seam allowance and wouldn’t make my needle gummy.

On this set of Ninnis I serged the edges of the outside leg pieces before attaching the pocket pieces, and in the future I’ll also serge the flat edge of the pocket pieces too before attachment. (I had a small mishap trying to serge the attached pockets where I serged into the pants fabric itself and had to rip out a small section.)

What I'd do differently: Because the wrong side of the fabric has a lot of floats, I’m a little concerned about these wearing/breaking from friction in the crotch. I didn’t add a lining at this time, but I may add one in the future if this becomes an issue.

I also tried styling a matching set with the Seamwork Bo top (last slide in gallery) and I don’t think the small pattern quite works. I’d love to try again with a larger print pattern.

Care: Machine wash cold, dry flat.