All Wrapped Up -- Tank Top Finished

Sadly, a picture of a black shirt just doesn't show much

With a little consideration, I finally decided on a fabric for my Hot Patterns Tank Top--a poly jersey that I got earlier this summer from Fabric.com.  I chose this fabric for a couple of reasons: it would be pretty easy to sew, would look good if I decided to skip hemming, and while I liked it, I didn't love it, so it wouldn't be a heartbreaking loss if it ended up as a total disaster.

The assembly of the pattern was pretty straightforward--though I do wish HotPatterns set their downloads up so that the resulting pattern sheet (after taping all 25 sheets of printer paper together) was in the shape of a square, rather than, well, not a square.  It helps that the papers were numbered and there was an assembly diagram.  But still.

Cutting was also pretty straightforward--the only trick for me was matching up the border print at the side seams.  There are only a half dozen pattern pieces--front, back, front overlap, arm binding, neckline binding, and ties.  The ties, however, are longer than what fits on a standard knit fabric width folded in half--the size 6 is 42 inches long--so they have to be cut separately.  Frankly, I found the ties to be too long and I cut mine to the length that I preferred.

Shirt appears gathered into neckline binding
Click the pic to see it better

Assembly was pretty straightforward as well.  My fabric didn't quite match the stretch guidelines--since the border print ran along one selvedge, the direction of the most stretch runs vertically instead of horizontally--but it's close enough to work.  The main trouble I had was with the neckline binding--the main body of the shirt managed to look almost gathered by the time I was done attaching the binding.  This also kind of worked out.  Even gathered-looking, it still looks kinda nice and besides, the front overlap conceals most of that part of the shirt anyway.

The armhole binding fit spot on and I had no trouble with those.  But they are very, very close fitting.  I find mine almost uncomfortable--in another fabric or in hot and humid weather I could see this close cut fit as being pretty unpleasant to wear.  In another version of this top I will definitely cut the armscyes bigger.  I like a close fit, but this is too close.

All in all, this is a nice pattern.    I constructed this top entirely with my sewing machine and a zigzag stitch.  Even the hems are done in 3 step zigzag.  I assembled the printed pages, cut fabric, and stitched the entire thing in a single afternoon.  Not bad for a free pattern.  Oh, and it's cute, too!