January Garment: Purple Linden

Uh, wow messy hair much?

My first MaGaM make is yet another of Grainline Studio's Linden Sweatshirt.  Like my last version, I'm totally in love with it; my grey version is relieved because now it's not the only constant in my wardrobe.  (Poor thing is looking a little pilly.)  It's made from a purple ponte knit I bought ages ago, and now I understand why everyone raves about this fabric because it's a delight to sew!  Even ripping seams is easy, or at least easier than most other knits I've messed up on and cursed while tearing out seams.

I recently changed the lightbulb in my sewing room - yay for seeing my stitching, boo for photos.

Uh, sorry for the weird lighting in these pictures.  I keep trying to get better pictures, but either the lighting at this time of the year is being a dick or my camera is.  Probably both.  Just pretend that the sweatshirt is this colour in all of the photos:

Obviously I mean the purple, not the rainbow.

I actually posted about this top earlier in the month, when I accidentially sewed up most of the shirt before leaving for camp.  I basically did the same changes that I did in my grey version (although this time I actually changed the paper pattern), but I made a few other mods.

Can you see up my nose?  I think you can see up my nose.  But at least you can't see my bra strap.

First off, to solve the exposed bra strap issue, I decided to try tightening up the neckband to see what would happen.  I measured the neckline length (28") and then cut a piece 3" shorter.  I basted it on first, because it seemed like it was going to be too tight, but it turned out pretty good.  I'm pleased with the result, it's still wide, but in a nice way and not a 'hey look at my bra strap colour' kind of way.  If I want to tighten it any further though, I'll have to extend the raglan seams up, since I think the top would ripple if I made the neckband any tighter.

Oh, I also made the neckband a bit thicker.

Oh uh, that's a lot of fluff on the front.  I have no explanation for that.

What else?  Oh, I tightened up the cuffs, which I like a lot better.  My grey linden's cuffs were a little too loose, but who's going to rip out a seam, the zig-zag finishing, and topstitching to narrow them up?  NOT ME!

There's a few issues yet - there's some wicked armpit wrinkles on both the front and the back.  I don't really care, but it's something I'll probably poke at to see if I can solve it.  Suzy managed to solve her raglan sleeve wrinkles on her swim suit, so I have hope.

The back is pretty...big.  I'm slowly removing all of the excess ease that's supposed to be in this pattern, but oh well.  Actually, now that I think about it, I took about an inch out of the back width, but I think next time I might try cutting a smaller size for the back.  Or nipping out a bit more.  Oh well, don't care, love this sweatshirt!

Here's a flat picture, so you can see that I still haven't put any kind of shaping to it.  I never thought I'd be a fan of boxy tops, but here we are.  Hilariously, I'm also knitting a sweater with this exact same shape, and...this exact same colour.  Hmmm.  More on that another time.

My 2015 tag.  Was going to do a dangly one, but forgot to sew it in before finishing that seam. Oops.

How do you like my tag?  REALLY needed in a top like this, since it's really hard to figure out which side is the front and which side is the back.

So, with this Make a Garment a Month thing, there's different themes each month.  This month was supposed to be "something new"!  Uh, there really isn't anything new about this top, except perhaps the new tags?  I was planning on adding a zippered breast pocket, but I liked the clean look of the front so veto'd it.  And then I was going to add thumbholes to the cuffs, but after 3 different cuffs and a lot of shouting, I gave up on that too.  That crap is not an easy technique (still want to figure it out, but another time).

But I'm alright with not following the themes.  I mean, I've joined to encourage me to sew more often, not to follow themes that may not work for my garment needs.  If those two line up, then I'll go for it, but if not, I'm not going to worry about it.

What's with the curls, hair?  Maybe it also approves of this top.

So yeah, successful garment.  Again!  And despite having other garments I really should work on (like the Watson bra I'm half-way through sewing), is it bad that I'm plotting my next Linden?  Serious love for this garment guys, can you tell?