Virginia Tank by 5 out of 4 Pattern Company

I bought this pattern a while ago and decided to use it when I wanted to make a summer sleep top.

I found a white slub knit fabric at Walmart which I thought might work. When I laundered it and laid it out on my table, I learned two things:

1. The fabric is rather thin.

2. It was probably a tubular knit until it was cut on the diagonal.

I assembled it using my serger and added a tag of sorts to it. I stitched a folded piece of ribbon onto the seam allowance of the neckline, then trimmed off the ribbon below that seam:

I used variegated thread in the looper of my coverstitch machine for all the topstitching:

When I first put on the top, it felt like it was cutting into my arms:

Much to my surprise, though, the fabric stretched out a lot after wearing, drooping under my arms!

If I use this pattern again with a different fabric, I would lower the armholes.

Otherwise, the pattern fit me just fine, and it was easy to make.

Love Notions Cadence - Sleeveless Dress

I have owned this sewing pattern for 5.5 years and I finally decided to try it.

Since I have made so many garments with knit fabric - surprise! - I found that I have only one woven fabric that might be suitable for this garment.

But first I had to make a test garment to see if this pattern might work. I had to go out to buy a woven fabric. I went to my local Hobby Lobby and found a summery floral.

I traced the pattern in my size, as usual. I laid the front pattern piece over my body and decided that I needed to lower the bust dart one inch. I did that and cut out the floral fabric.

I sewed it up using all my machines (sewing machine, serger, and coverstitch machine). Here are pictures of the first garment.

Whoah, now. That last picture shows the fabric bunching at my back waist. That means I needed to do a swayback adjustment. Luckily, my friend Sherril showed me something I had seen, not tried, and forgotten.

Oh, goodness. My husband took one look at the last picture and said, "You don't have a swayback. It's just that your belly is pulling all that fabric to the front."

He may be right, but this seems to work for me now. The proof is in the next version of this pattern. I used a thin knit with almost no stretch - which just happened to be in my stash.

Oh, another surprise. I needn't have lowered the bust dart, so I moved it almost all the way back to where it started.

So I guess the next step will be to make up this pattern in the GOOD fabric.

I hope to report back within the next year!

Love Notions Laundry Day Tee - Tops with Short Sleeves

 I found a pattern for a top or dress that I really like, so I have made 22 of them since I first go the pattern.

This is the Laundry Day Tee (LDT) by Love Notions Designs. There is a special deal on this pattern when you join their Facebook group.

Here is the first top I made with this pattern using a red plaid ITY (interlock twist yarn) knit from Nancy Zieman's website (no longer available).

I had enough fabric that my friend made one, too.

She learned how to sew knit garments on a serger by making hers at the same time I did.

Here is a top for which I have proof that I made it but no pictures of it finished. I also think I did not like the print on me and gave it to someone for some reason. Here is most of the proof I have:

I made the next top twice - once for me and one for my pedicure lady's birthday. This was a knit mesh from JoAnn Fabrics.

I later decided to make a top for my mom with a blue floral that I found on Amazon. It's slightly fuzzy so I thought it would be warm (it was winter at the time). She likes it and sent me a 94-year-old selfie!

I made another one for Mom with a soft, stripe/floral DBP (double-brushed poly). More about my garment later.

At the same time, I made her another one with a knit from hobby lobby.

That's it for the short-sleeved KDTs.

Love Notions Laundry Day Tee - Sleeveless Dresses

I found a pattern for a top or dress that I really like, so I have made 22 of them since I first go the pattern.

This is the Laundry Day Tee (LDT) by Love Notions Designs. There is a special deal on this pattern when you join their Facebook group.

Here is my first sleeveless one using a swim fabric that I don't know where I got it. My topstitching and hems were finished with a medium zigzag stitch.

The next sleeveless dress I made is of a thin mesh fabric which may have been from JoAnn Fabrics. I did not have a lot of fabric, but it is a non-directional print. This means that I could add a back seam and cut it out in opposite directions.

Once again, my topstitching and hems were finished with a medium zigzag stitch.

I wear it a lot, especially when it's hot or raining outside, which are not mutually exclusive to Florida.

The older I get, the more likely I am to have coordinating earrings.

One of my favorite sleeveless dresses is this one, which I made really wide and really long. I added a center back seam to make this work for the amount of fabric I had.

I trimmed the hem after cutting using the method in my previous post.

A friend gave me this next fabric (which is no longer available online). It has vacation vibes, so I had to make another long, sleeveless dress. Once again, I made it longer, wider, and with a center back seam.

I believe this knit mesh fabric was from JoAnn Fabrics. It is so light and airy, but I did not get much, so it became a shorter dress.

So that's it for the sleeveless dresses ... for now.

Love Notions Laundry Day Tee - Dresses with Short Sleeves

I found a pattern for a top or dress that I really like, so I have made 22 of them since I first go the pattern.

This is the Laundry Day Tee (LDT) by Love Notions Designs. There is a special deal on this pattern when you join their Facebook group.

Here is the first one using a very thin jersey fabric that is no longer available on Amazon. I used the serger for all of the seams and for attaching the band at the neckline. I used the dress width and made it the length that I thought I wanted. I did hem the sleeves but not the lower hem, and it has yet to unravel. My topstitching of choice was a medium zigzag stitch.

The next one that I sewed was with a mystery pink foil fabric that I found in a mystery fabric barn in north-central Florida. Still using the dress width, I even hemmed the - hem!

Again with the dress width, I went for a more winter-wearing stretch crushed velvet. Silly me - I never modeled it, but it certainly was in winter-wearing rotation.

More winter wearing came with a paisley ponte from JoAnn Fabrics, this one just a little shorter than most.

Wouldn't you know that right before the pandemic, I lost some weight. I made this cute little dress with an athletic knit. Now it hangs in the closet, waiting for me to re-lose that weight.

The next one was another very lightweight knit from an un-memorable source, but this one has a special trick which I used more and more often - I flared the dress as much as the fabric would let me and trimmed the hem after construction.

When I first cut it out, I just extended the side seams as wide and as long as possible for the fabric.

Then I laid out the dress facing me, with side seams evenly to each side, and trim the bottom so that it was straight across.

Then I turned it so that the side seams were together, and the center front and center back were on opposite sides.

Then I just started trimming evenly in several steps.

I posed in this one.

Of course, I did it again in an ITY (interlock twist yarn) knit from Fabric dot com (maybe?).

Oops, I did it again. Don't mind if I do, but here I show that I added to the center back to make a seam so that the pattern would fit onto the fabric. This works best when the print is not directional.

This turned out well, I think.

And again.

And for winter again, another crushed stretch velvet, but this one is extra silky. It's from FabricsUniverse on Etsy. - What?? I didn't pose in it?

Well, golly, those are all the LDTs (Laundry Day Tees) that I made with short sleeves.