So, the mission for some new tops for Autumn has begun in earnest. I’ve made 4 so far in the past week. First up is this version of Grainline’s Hemlock Tee. This is a heavyweight jersey. Not quite a sweatshirt. I guess you could say somewhere between a jersey and a ponte. So it’s toasty warm 🙂 I picked this length of fabric up from a charity shop for a mere £1 so it’s a super cheap and super quick make too.
Oh, yeah, and I had all my hair lopped off too. Bit of a spur of the moment thing. I spent the night before my appointment pinning hairstyles on Pinterest. Heck I just felt like a change and blow drying that bob everyday was becoming a faff. (Especially now my mornings involve a proper school run). Still getting used to it and can’t stop fiddling with it for the moment. It’s only been 2 days. You’ll probably notice the stark contrast in colour too. I haven’t coloured my hair for a few months over the summer (just no point!). So all the colour has been sun bleached  out and this is the nearest I’ve been to my natural colour for some years (ahem, grey included! You can’t see it in these pics, but it’s there!)….
Anway, back to the Hemlock Tee. Seriously, what’s not to love about this pattern?! It’s quick, easy, FREE, and it chimes perfectly with my hankering for some slouchy, comfy tops for Autumn. In fact, if you saw my previous post you may have noticed it is almost identical to one of the inspiration pics I posted there…
I made some slight changes. I omitted the neckline band the pattern calls for and simply rolled the neckline under and narrow hemmed it. (Same with the hem and cuffs) I cut the ubiquitous high low hem, and added a patch pocket. I don’t have an overlocker so the whole thing was sewn on my standard sewing machine. As this fabric doesn’t fray there was no need for me to finish the raw edges. (I was going for quick rather than thorough 😉 Similarly, this is quite a stable knit; so neither did I have to employ any special stitches. I used a standard straight stitch on all seams and hems; and simply held the fabric under a small amount of tension (in other words I stretched it slightly) as it fed through my machine, and that seems to have done the job beautifully!
I spent so long avoiding knits.  (Probably because my first attempt to sew jersey on my machine involved a cheap low quality jersey and a hungry feed dog….)
I thought they were preserve of sergers, but apparently not! Yes a serger provides a better finish, but I think as long as you choose a relatively stable, good quality jersey, they’re not the “be all and end all” of sewing with knits by any means…