Totally DIY Tie Dye top

This top is based on a T shirt I owned back in the early 90s. I loved it so much and was devastated when eventually it fell appart. That version was not leopardskin print tho!

I actually wore that top out. I cannot honestly say that about many clothes I have owned in my life.

My original top was really a mens top that was sized small but went lovely with leggings which was the fashion then as well as now. That top was bought tie dyed.

This top was bought as a cream or off-white fabric with a shadow leopard print.

 I made a top with it from the Blank Slate high low T-shirt pattern:

Can you believe this is the same piece of fabric?

I really consider this white top a complete disaster to the extent I have never worn it and it went straight back into the stash where it remains to this day. I should have tie dyed that as well and maybe it would be more acceptable. I just feel it is frumpish and middle aged in the worst possible way so I will never wear it. Sad because the fabric I made it from is very nice.

However, a year or so ago now I had a play with tie dye and I died the remainder of this piece of fabric.

I was amazed at how it turned out. It must be a cotton synthetic mix because the background died but not the leopard spots giving it a very interesting effect.

Then it sat for the year in my stash waiting for my inspiration.

Well the inspiration I needed came with summer this year, and my dotty glitter hoody which I made from a pattern I use for hoodies for my Mick.


Having made the glitter top, I decided what better can I do with this nice bit of fabric than make a copy of my 90s T shirt which is probably my most worn and most loved top ever.

Then the reality of having had 2.1m of this to begin with and already having made a top from it hit me. I just did not have very much fabric to play with. It took me several evenings of playing with pattern pieces to decide I can cut the front, back and hood very easily but not both sleeves so then I was going to make a sleeveless top. That would have been OK but less wearable but still a nice summer top.

But still there was a sizeable bit left which was big enough for a short sleeve but not for my second sleeve but what I did have was some strips and odd shaped bits so I decided after yet another fortnight of this lying around that I would make the second sleeve from the bits. To do this I had to cut it at various different directions so I have no idea what will happen over time with stretching weirdly etc and this may be a top for just this summer depending on what happens. There is no lycra in this top so it may well go very weirdly out of shape yet on the sleeve that's made of bits of fabric.

Here you can see the left sleeve is made from 3 bits and you can tell the grain is all over the place on the 3 bits.

I roughly cut the bits to fit the pattern, overlocked the three bits together, then cut the sleeve accurately using the pattern and then used a twin needle to top stitch both the seam and the opposite side of the seam which is just single layer to try to make it look more designed. Then I ironed the seams flat as possible. There is tunnelling but it looks much better after ironing and I am happy to have managed to get the second sleeve out of this. I am left with a few bits that may make something tiny like a crotch lining on some knickers and thats all the fabric left over.

 

Anyway having pieced together some bits to make my second sleeve, I finally got round to sewing it all up and the end result is, I have to say, very pleasing, at least to me.

I overlocked and then twin needle stitched the hems. The hems were awful to sew. I have no idea why. The machine, which is usually very well behaved, ate one part of the hem. It did not actually cut the fabric but I had to take the machine appart to get it out of the teeth. Then it broke the thread multiple times. I have so many bits of hem I sewed twice rather than unpick it so its really quite messy but the tie dye covers a multitude of sins - and this top has a multitude round all the hems believe me.

 

I do feel good when I wear this top. 

Its really me.

In case you were wondering, the leggings are not me -made. They were a birthday present.

Bracken