Hi everyone!
A few weeks ago, I got to try out the new SEW OVER IT online class ‘Intro to Sewing with Knit Fabrics’. (As always, all opinions are my own!) I’ve never really made use of online courses before. I bought a couple on Craftsy ages ago but never actually made anything from it.
When the lovely ladies over at SEW OVER IT approached me, I immediately wanted to try after getting a glimpse at the patterns included in the class. I love their work and most of my favourite patterns are from SEW OVER IT. The Alice Top, with a faux bow front, was incredibly tempting! (There’s another pattern included, the Emma dress, which looks lovely, but I haven’t tried it yet.)
About the class:
It was pure joy to follow this online course. It’s always great to see lovely Lisa in action and she perfectly explains all the steps involved in making this cute top. The construction is not too tricky, but a bit unconventional and seeing it being put together on camera helps a lot. There’s a lot of useful information about sewing with knits included. As a more experienced sewer, I really enjoyed this class, none-the-less. It’s delightfully relaxing, as you really get immersed in the project.
My first Alice Top:
I used a green lightweight jersey, as was recommended in the class. (The fabric was gifted to me by my mother-in-law, so I’m afraid I cannot tell you where to buy it!)
For this first version of the Alice Top I went through the class step-by-step, pretty much cutting a straight size 10 without making any fit adjustments. It turned out really well! There were a couple of minor fit issues, I could easily fix before cutting another version of this pattern:
(Remember, these have nothing to do with the pattern itself, but are specific to my body measurements and posture)
- The front neckline is gaping ever so slightly
- The sleeve were rather tight
- The fit at the waist was quite loose
The only thing I adjusted on the green top was taking in the waist by approximately 2 cm on each side. I’ll show you the fitted version of this top in the next post!
But perfect fit or not, this trial round went really well, don’t you think? The top is perfectly wearable and I’m really happy with it.
A few words about the construction: The Alice Top is fully faced, front and back, to create a perfect, close-fitting V-neckline and stabilise the gathers at the front. With the very detailed video instructions, this rather unconventional pattern isn’t very hard to construct. Once I finished the first top, I hardly had to revisit the course to make the second one.
The construction takes a bit longer than the average jersey top, as you have to stabilise the neckline and sew a couple more seams because of the facing. But the finishes look incredibly neat and professional.
No overlocker needed!
For this first top, I only used my sewing machine. So if you do not have access to an overlocker, this is the perfect project for you. Because of the specific construction techniques used in this course, you’ll get very neat finishes without having to use any professional equipment.
This was also the first project Aslan very helpfully assisted with modelling. I didn’t realise he might be a bit too big to use as accessory until after seeing these photos! Man, he’s grown so much in the past two months!
As I don’t want to post too many sewing-unrelated pics on my blog’s social media accounts, Aslan now has got his very own…For those of you, who want to see more of this cute little face, you can FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM to watch him grow up!
What are your thoughts about online classes? Are you a fan?
xx
Charlie
Happy sewing!
♥
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