DesignGeek

When I was a kid, about 7 or 8 years old, I learned how to sew pants for myself. They were very simple pants, nothing complicated; just two legs and an elastic on top. My mum always had a sewing machine and I was allowed to use it already as a kid. There was always a big box of fabric scraps and I sew all sorts of things together. Later on I had some crafts lessons at school where I did some more sewing and learned to do some more complicated things.

I bought myself a sewing machine a while ago but so far I only altered existing clothes. I bought this very nice and soft cotton muslin recently. I liked the feel of the fabric but they only had it in white. So first I had to dye the fabric.

At the local chemist I bought a some Dylon Cold fabric dye in Turquoise Saga. I followed the instructions on the back of the pack and dyed the fabric in my laundry tub.

After about an hour I took the fabric out of the colour bath, rinsed it and washed it in the washing machine to rinse of all the excess dye. I then air dried and ironed it.

I decided to make a light summer top out of the fabric. I already had this New Look sewing pattern for a simple top. I used the pattern with a few amends.

First I laid out the fabric and cut out all the required pieces.

I then sew it all together. It was quite easy as most of it was just straight. To give the raw edges of the fabric a nice finish I used french seams everywhere. The sleeves and the collar were a bit tricky but in the end I got it to look quite neat.

That’s my finished top after I washed it once. It has got this nice wrinkled look muslin gets after washing. I amended the pattern so that my finished top has some short sleeves and is a bit shorter then on the original pattern. It’s simple and light and it fits me very nicely.

I especially like the detail of the collar as it doesn’t require any buttons.