Nancy Raglan #2
Being able to reproduce the results of one’s experiments is very important. Anyone can get lucky the first time. I made another Nancy Raglan yesterday, this time with some rayon/spandex from the stash.
[I have said before that I am sensitive to spandex, so you might be wondering how I can get away with wearing these tops. Spandex bothers me more in certain pieces of clothing than others. If I don’t remember to turn the cuffs of my socks down over the socks themselves, I will have a rash around my legs by the end of the day. There is one brand of bra I can tolerate (Wacoal) because it has a lower spandex content than other bras. Spandex is in everything, literally, so I have just learned to live with it, and to pick fabrics that contain as little of it as possible.]
Rayon knits are harder to work with than French terry. Let’s just get that out there. They are lighter and slinkier and while I managed to make this top without much fuss, it did take longer. Again, I had to test and change the settings on the serger and the coverstitch machines, but I am getting faster at that process.
Here is the finished top:
These are the issues I had to address:
I pulled this fabric from the stash. I’ve tried not to buy a lot of knits, even on sale, because without having a few tried-and-true patterns in the collection, I didn’t know how much to get. This piece was about two yards, 58” wide, which was enough for the body and sleeve pieces, but only enough for one cowl piece. Knits, unlike wovens, have to be cut as directional fabrics due to the stretch. Even though I had a chunk of fabric left over, I couldn’t turn the cowl pattern and cut it vertically instead of horizontally as I might have with a woven.
Making a contrast cowl was easy because I had done it on the first version. However, the only remnants I had in the stash were a red rayon/spandex that was the wrong red (too burgundy) and some black cotton/spandex that was too heavy to go with the rayon/spandex. I broke my rule of not making a special trip into town except for emergencies—”emergency” having a rather loose definition—and ran to Joanns to get a yard of black rayon/spandex. The cowl was the last thing left to attach and I wanted to finish this top.
I don’t allow pins anywhere near my serger. I don’t want to run the risk of missing one and running over it with the knife. With the French terry, I was able to use mini size Wonder Clips to hold the pieces together. This fabric was so light and slinky, though, that even the mini Wonder Clips were too heavy. Someone could make a lot of money if they would manufacture tiny Wonder Clips for this purpose. I more or less managed with a combination of a few Wonder Clips at key points and holding the rest of the fabric together with my hands, serging as slowly as I could because the edges of this fabric want to roll. A lot.
I coverstitched the sleeve hems flat. Eh. I think I’ll just practice more and master doing them in the round. I did change to plain Maxi-Lock polyester thread in the needles on the coverstitch and I like that better, at least on this fabric.
When I cut the pieces out, I added an extra 1/4” seam allowance on the raglan seams. That did the trick for adding a bit more ease across my shoulders.
I have this same print in bright purple, so I may make yet another version. I think it would look nice with a band of black at the bottom of each sleeve to match the black cowl.
Trying to explain women’s clothing to the husband is very entertaining. I told him that I had made another top and he said, “You made another shirt?” I said, “No, I made a top. A shirt is something else.” He said, “Men call all their tops ‘shirts.’ Why do women have all these special names for their clothing?”
He has no idea.
I don’t need that many fancy tops. I really need to confine my sewing with knits to making myself more casual ones out of French terry and cotton/spandex fabrics. I’d love to find a great pants pattern, though, that I could make out of some nice ponte knit. I think those would be especially nice to wear in the winter. Goals.