black mesh Frieda Petrenko inspired top

I watch Holby City most weeks. Not because I like it because generally I hate hospital soaps, but my other half comes from a family of nurses which is I think why we have to watch it. He is not himself a nurse but his Mum, Sister etc etc are all nurses and by the sounds of it he grew up watching these types of TV programs. So I watch.

For the most part I am pretty bored and get on with cleaning the kitchen or similar essential mundane stuff. One character I have got into though is Frieda Petrenko played by Olga Fedori. She is very much a Goth and wears some really nice gear. Petrenko usually wears mesh or lace tops under here Doctor's scrubs. They just kind of peep out. The tops tend to vary over the weeks and try as I might I cannot find a picture of this top that inspired me to make todays post.

This one particular under top is made from wide mesh and unlike most tops of similar designs I have come across it has a "normal" T shirt neck and possibly wrists.


Well mine has wrists anyway. I did not really want to sit through several episodes of Holby to check that small detail because I know the last time she was seen on screen wearing tis top is 3-4 weeks ago now so it would mean far too many episodes just for this blog post. The top in questions seems not to be in any easy to find internet posts.

So my wrists and neck edges are black lycra fabric left over from something else I made. I used the Its always autumn free pattern for this top - one of my internet favourites which I have used several times before.
Great pattern. I seriously recommend it. You can see some of my previous versions here http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/25-comparing-free-raglan-sleeved-t.html
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/26-more-free-raglan-sleeve-tshirt.html
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/36-raglan-sleeved-black-and-blue-top.html

and a hack of it here:

http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/68-joe-browns-inspired-upcycled-tunic.html

Stupidly this time I made it bigger to accommodate as much fabric as possible rather than have a few left over scraps which would go to waste. That was a mistake. I am sure Petrenko's original is tighter and more Tshirt like. I may have to make another but with some fishnet which I have in my stash.

I bought the fabric full price on my birthday back in July so its kid of precious and I virtually never buy full priced fabric so this was for me expensive at £7 a meter. I wanted absolutely no waste. Well its worked out bigger and more baggy that it was meant to but I reckon still looks OK.

That is until I show you this:

Looks like some reject from the market eh?

I cocked it up.

Its all twisted and lop-sided!

It happened because I sewed one sleeve with the fabric on the wrong side. You can just about see here:

Its actually very difficult to see which is the right and wrong side but there is a difference so what I have done is make the back and front of one sleeve the wrong way round if you see what I mean so the lower front neck ends up on the back and the higher back, on the front, but only on one side so the final result is I have twisted it.
Because its so hard to see and to sew as well, because sewing is a bit tricky, so I actually had a larger than usual seam allowance to ensure I caught all the ends of the cut bits of mesh into the seams, so I really do not want to cut this appart and resew.

I could resew but it looks perfectly Ok on me and is comfortable and if I take it all appart I could wreck my precious and expensive fabric so its staying just as it is. The mesh is very forgiving and I think other than me most people, probably all people, will never realise the sleeve on one side is sewn on inside out.

 Sorry about the toast. These were taken when I was not planning on being a model yet.

Well being someone who has grown up wearing cheapo discount and market clothing that's not so bad and it looks Ok on me I think so I am not that worried. I just kind of find it a bit funny. The hem I have so far left unhemmed and raw which I quite like although depending on how it wears I may yet get round to hemming that. I prefer it raw. It works with the look I think.

Its a bit of a shame the neck is so wide and unlike what I set out to make but in all its a success because I am very sure I will be wearing this lots. Its just my kind of garment.

In case you were wondering I also made the leggings.
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/38-side-panel-leggings.html

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments

Bracken

27: Better picture of orange raglan top and a new top

I have some slightly better photos of my orange two colour-sleeve raglan top now. It was a great location out and about shopping but the original photos just did not show enough of the top I was trying to show so here is a better one of the front:

and the back:

This is my latest attempt at a raglan sleeved top:

Its from the Newlook 6230 pattern so NOT a free pattern but was half price at Jaycotts recently so I decided to invest in it.

Unfortunately I did not bother reading the instructions OR the pattern pieces and cut the back piece out on a fold rather than with a centre-back seam. That is good because I prefer no back seam. Seems a stupid thing to put one there if you do not need it for shaping!
But bad because I failed to take out the seam allowance which makes it baggy on the back! You will have to ignore the straps. They are from what I am wearing underneath.

I have not ironed it either as you can tell:)

I also think its a bit short which will be fine with skirts but not so good to cover up my bum when wearing leggings.

I did not use the neck edging band here since I was in a hurry to finish this

 but will add this on my next version. It is a nice baggy overtop partly due to my not noticing the CB should be cut and seamed  but also because it seems it is just baggy and the neck is a bit wide - possibly partly down to my missing out the neck band but not completely I think. The fabric is a reasonably thick ribbed fabric which I picked up for 99p off ebay for about 3 meters so its a wearable muslin really. At least when I make it in more expensive fabric I will do it right next time. I shall not bother to alter this because it will work with some of my wardrobe as it is and could really be worn off the shoulder which will mean the baggy back is seen less and with a bit of luck summer is coming and I have no basic black off the shoulder tops in my current clothing so this could be good after all.

In the end though I still prefer the pattern which is FREE from http://www.itsalwaysautumn.com/2016/02/15/long-sleeve-raglan-sweatshirt-free-pattern.html
but I will be making another one of these. Also this Newlook 6230 pattern has a straight skirt pattern. I have recently made several skirts similar to this but without a pattern. Always good to have a proper pattern since I find it avoids expensive mistakes and as you may realise I am not the most experienced sewist around.

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave any comments:

Bracken

25: Comparing the free raglan sleeved T shirt patterns available on the internet

 If you are, like me, after a raglan-sleeved T shirt pattern ( preferably for free) you will find this article of interest. The following is my experiments with widely available FREE raglan sleeved patterns off the internet as well as a couple of other purchased raglan sleeved patterns.

Some time ago I decided I wanted to make some sports-wear inspired clothing. Not actually for sport but just because I like the style and the details on this kind of clothing. It is also very easy to wash and wear and does not need ironing which is always a bonus. I saw a lovely sports dress, not sure what type of activity it was intended for on a local University sports website. I cannot copy it here in case of copy-write etc. It was really just a very long vest dress but with colour blocking, piping etc and in performance type fabric.

It inspired me because of firstly I love active wear but also because of the details. You can add piping, colour blocking or just do it all plain. I have lots of synthetic 4-way stretch material in my stash. Some of it is actually very high quality high performance type material but mostly it is just average bog-standard synthetics such as polyester some with and some without spandex. Anyway I have lots of colours I would not usually wear such as coral and white due to getting a bit carried away on ebay on several occasions. Normally,I tend to go for darker and richer colours. When it comes to sports clothing however I will happily wear coral and white with no worries. Or even fluourescents. Since I am not the most experienced sewist around I need first to try a few designs out before committing to anything too difficult. I decided the best way to use the colours of fabric I have is to colour block them so for example mix coral with black. Since I am not a great designer the easiest way to do this seems to me to find a decent raglan sleeved pattern and see how it looks.

The first pattern I tried was Its always autumn's free Tshirt pattern in a large. You can get it here:
http://www.itsalwaysautumn.com/2016/02/15/long-sleeve-raglan-sweatshirt-free-pattern.html

As I have previously blogged in a different post I find sizing is somewhat varied. I can be a XS or even a XL depending on the brand. I am a Burda size 36-38 so around a 10-12 UK size in tops. Although on the high street I have bought a UK sized 6 and a UK sized 16 so who knows what I really am.

For version 1, I used some of my coral fabric which was sold to me as coral flair. I am unsure what flair is but its a kind of stretchy textured fabric. I mixed this with some black 4 way stretch polyester type fabric. I did not read the itsalwaysautumn.com tutorial to go with this top before making it which was possibly a mistake. I just set to and overlocked all seems although I forgot the sleeve edge, twin needle hemmed the sleeve edge before sewing up the side seams since previously I have found tight fitting sleeves do not go over my machine once the sides seams have been sewn, and turned the neck edge over, overlocked it and twin needle stitched it. That was a mistake. I should have put a ribbed edge on it. The sleeves are three quarter but the tutorial does tell you how to lengthen them. Well as I said I didn't read it but just went ahead and sewed. It worked well considering I did not do the neck properly - may go back and redo that later. I also think a sleeve edge with ribbing would be better. I cut my sleeves without putting the pattern on a fold so ended up with a seam down the arm which would look good if I was to add piping. As you can see it fits more like a sweatshirt than an exercise T shirt but then thats was it looks like on itsalwaysautumn.com so thats really good.

I am actually after something tighter but I may make this again with addition of the piping down the raglan bits and either down the sleeve seams or I will put the pattern on a fold to eliminate the sleeve seams. I also measured it against an existing sweat top I have (from New Look sized 8 ) which also has three quarter sleeves and its almost an exact copy size-wise.

Really my main issue is not the pattern, although it is looser than I hoped, for but the fabric. I wore it to work and as any regular readers will know I work in a lab where you do not have to be smart. Jeans and T shirts go. It was comfortable but the sleeves are a bit tight round the edge - they are 3/4 so its not the wrist but the calf on our leg. No idea what it is on the arm. Forearm to me is kind of the entire lower bit of limb.Well theres a thought!

And it is not the pattern style but the coral flair! Now this fabric is just kind of old lady blousish. The kind of old-lady-top fabric you get in tops found on a market or out of a supermarket. Thats the only way I can describe it. My next top  I decide to make was made in ribbed fabric. Its a fine rib with cream sleeves and khaki body with a ribbed neck edge and longer sleeves like itsalwaysautumn did herself..



Anyway I am going to try a different pattern out for my next post. I am very happy with this pattern from itsalwaysautumn.com and can only recommend this if you are after a free raglan sleeved top pattern.
I really have to sort out my sports type of patterns because I have so much of this kind of fabric in my stash and I love to wear these kind of clothes.

TO BE CONTINUED........

Thanks for reading

Bracken