Two of my granddaughters, sisters, had both decided they wanted it. With only a metre of it, I had to think carefully if I was to get two garments! . Their Mummy said they were most in need of tops, so it seemd like a good opportuntiy to try the free Life Sew Savory Swing Tee pattern, which has been on my to do list for a while. you can find out how I got on below the jump!
As always, Emily gives a really clear tutorial on her web site. So I'm not going to repeat all the instructions here. I'll just comment on things I did to make it work for me, some of which you may find useful.
The front of this pattern is more or less a straight across the bottom tee shirt, but with flared sides. However, the back has a nice downward curve to the centre, to cover the booty, so overall, it is longer. I planned to use a size 6/7, for Jane, who is 6, but slender, and a size 4, the smallest size, for Ada, who is 3. The pattern also goes up to size 16.
The fabric was quite wide, at 150 cm or c 60", like most stretch fabrics, but only a metre long. Both front and back need to be cut on a fold. So the only practical way was to fold both selvedges in towards the centre. The only way I was going to do it was to do the back of the longer one and the front of the shorter one on the same fold, and the back of the shorter one and the front of the longer one on the other fold. So here, I've cut the back of the size 6/7, and I've measured the length needed for the size 4 front, by folding the front pattern piece on the size 4 lines. (I traced the size 4 onto tracing paper afterwards.)
I didn't fold the selvedge right into the centre, that wasn't necessary, as the pattern pieces weren't that wide. In fact, had I done so, I would have wasted a lot of fabric, and I wouldn't have had enough left for the sleeves. So you can see below that I ended up with a good space in the middle. Here, I have cut out both the size 6/7 pieces, and placed the traced size 4 pieces ready to cut.
I could only just make it - you can see the pattern pieces are pushed right up into the bit where the knit fabric curls down - those curling edges are one of quite a few things I dislike about knit fabrics. So there was enough room in the middle to cut my four sleeves, and I had some horizontal pieces long enough to make the neck bindings.
Once all the pieces were cut out, I sewed the shoulder seams of both tee shirts together,
The tutorial gives two alternative methods for finishing the neckline. If you have a serger / overlocker, you might prefer to do bands. However, not only do I not have a serger, but I prefer the neck seams encased by bindings. The girls find these less 'itchy'. So I duly made neck bindings in the sizes given in the tutorial. Sometimes I use ready-made stretch bias bindings for necklines etc on stretch fabrics, it's just so much less effort. But I had enough of the unicorm fabric so - might as well use it!
Another of the things I find annoying about knit fabrics (can you tell I generally prefer using wovens?) is how much harder it is to get in a crease that will stay, for example if you are making a binding. But I've found two things that help. TIP ONE: I use a wooden chop stick to hold down the edges I am pressing with the steam iron, to avoid scalding myself. TIP TWO: as I go along, I roll up the binding fold side out - this seems to help it stay in its creases until you use it. If it still keeps unrolling, you can just put a pin through the end. So here are my two neck bindings ready to use.
Other than my dislike of sewing knits, I had very few problems with making the swing tee shirts. I did have a bit of an issue with the first neck binding. (My problem, not the pattern.) With my first attempt, it poked up a bit. This picture shows it AFTER pressing it. I didn't really like it, and contacted Emily for advice.
You can probably see that I had top stitched the binding using a zig zag stitch. For the second one, the smaller one, instead, I hand-stitched the second side of the binding - it's only about 16" long and took me 10 minutes. After pressing it, this one worked much better, so I unpicked the overstitching on the first one and hand-sewed that one also. It looked neater that way.
You'll see I also put a little tab inside the back neckline of each each one, partly so they would know the back when dressing themselves, but also I gave each sister a different colour tab.
Once the necks are completed, you feel you are pretty much on the home straight! You join the sleeves on, (which required some easing) and then do the side seams. The only other slight problem was that when I came to do the side seams, I discovered that the front of the sdie seam for each one was c 1/2" -3/4" (1.5-2cm) shorter than back. I got round this by shortening the back side seam and redrawing the curve, which made the side seams match but also made the back dip a bit deeper.
This worked, but in future, I would add 1/4" to front pattern before cutting out and reduce the back by 1/4" all the way across. All that was left then was the sleeve and bottom hems.
I wondered if I'd cut the pattern pieces badly, but I measured the side seams on the pattern, and sure enough, the seams were a bit shorter on the front. So I contacted Emily again. And here's her reply.
"I am aware that some of the sizes of the swing tee sides don't line up. I'm not sure what happened originally, but I've recently been made aware of this issue. So glad you were able to figure it out and I would suggest doing exactly what you did. Please share photos in our group when you get the time! "
So I did just that!
I love Emily's patterns, and this one is free. She is generous with her help. So overall, I think this is another great pattern, with only one minor issue, i.e. the side seams. An easy fix. And two lovely tops ready for the girls. (You'll see the slightly deeper dip in the back of the smaller one, as that's where the mismatch of the side seams was the biggest.
And I'm pleased to report that both girls (and their mother) were delighted with these tops and wanted more. Their cousins liked them, too, so I now have an order book!
I'm rather pleased with the way the pattern matching has worked out - not within each top, but between the two tops, both on the front and the backs. See for example, the backs, below. Both girls have a white unicorn on the right shoulder, then two blue ones down the centre right, and so on. If I'm honest, that was an accident, as I used the fabric as economically as I could, fitting the pattern as best I could to maximise the use of the fabric. But I'm happy that it worked out as it did!
(By the way, I also made the girls' loose style leggings - but that's another story!)
UPDATE: I've now made several more Swing Tee tops - you can find more pictures of making them here.
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