There is a box, in the corner of my sewing room.
It is a box whose contents have not seen the light of day for many a month.
Many crafters will be familiar with this box, in all of its forms:
There’s the ever-growing amorphous lump that lies underneath your desk…
The monster underneath your bed… The stuff you vacuum-packed in a fit of organization
and stuffed into your garage in the hopes that you’d never have to deal with it again…
This, my friends, is the UNFINISHED SEWING PILE.
The item that I’m going to work on today is a new addition to the pile – this rust-coloured
crop top. Now, it’s cut apart at the sides already because, uh… I tried it on the other
day and it was too small and I literally had to be cut out of it so that I could breathe.
You might remember this being mentioned if you watched my vlog the other day.
Katie: "And yeah, I had to cut you out of that shirt the other day, so there was that."
Annika: "Yep."
Anyway, I thrifted the top of weeks ago, even though I knew it was probably too small for
me, because I REALLY liked the colour and style.
As you can see, it really doesn’t fit. But that’s not a problem because I am going
to make it fit!
So my plan is to add a new back to the top. The first thing that I do is to remove these
two bits that make up the back. To do that, I seam rip it – which is, cutting through
and ripping out the threads at the side seams, because I don’t want to lose any of the
fabric. Cutting through all the threads takes a while,
but I eventually get there. And at the very top, I snip through the bias
binding. And the front piece is free.
Now, I’m going to use the old back piece as a kind of template for my new back piece
– which is basically just going to be a lot WIDER than this original piece.
So for the new back piece, I chose this rusty red colour as I thought it would give the
top kind of cool colourblocking effect, but also match the orange at the same time. The
new material was also a ribbed jersey, so that the texture would also match the front.
I measured how long the original back piece was, and then I added an inch up the top and
an inch down the bottom, so 2 extra inches all up, for seam allowance for the hem.
I also added about 4 extra inches to the width. Now I added 4 inches basically just by guessing
– because I figured that I needed around 2-3 extra inches of width on the back piece
to make it fit, and about an inch for a generous seam allowance, so, all up - 4 inches. If
I've added too much and it's too loose, I can always adjust and take it in more. Anyway,
here's my new back piece.
Now I am going to fold and pin these top and bottom edges of the new back piece, so that
it becomes the same height as the original, using the original nearby as a guide.
On the original piece this top bit actually curved down a little bit towards the centre,
so I also copied that onto my piece by adjusting this hem so that it also has a curve in the middle.
Next, I’m going to sew the hem down like this.
To sew the hem, I am actually going to be using this new twin needle that I just got!
And this is the first time I’m ever using this twin needle, so fingers cross that it works!
I bought this because twin needles are really
useful for sewing stretch fabrics. When're only using a normal needle and normal sewing
foot on a material like ribbed jersey, it likes to do this - which is not a super good
look. Using a twin needle stops this from happening, and it also gives hems this super
professional double-stitching on the outside.
To thread a twin needle, you will need to use two spools of thread on the top of the
machine. For my machine, both the threads are threaded through together like normal,
and then separated into each of the two needles. The bobbin is threaded just like usual.
Also, you when you’re using a twin needle you need to sew on the top side of the material
that you're sewing, because these two lines of straight-stitching will appear on the top,
and on the underside it'll appear as zig zags.
So, on the back piece that I just pinned, I actually had to move all the pins around
to the other side. Now I am going to sew across like this, using my twin needle, to hem the back piece.
While sewing, I also use my walking foot to make super dooper sure that the hem isn’t
going to ruffle. A walking foot is another weapon in your arsenal against that ruffly
hem. It uses these little “feed dogs”, which kinda look like little walking feet,
to pull the fabric through evenly on both the top and the bottom, and this prevents ruffling.
When you’re using both a twin needle and walking foot together, you should also sew
really slowly.
And, there it is! My super nice, professional looking, completely flat hem!
Now I just have to attach these front and back pieces together, which I do by placing
them right-sides together and matching up the edges at the sides.
Then, I pin and I sew like this.
Again, I’m using my twin needle for this seam but if I didn’t have one then I would
be using just a regular zig zag stitch. That extra line of stitches that a twin needle
provides does give the seam a bit of extra strength.
As well as stopping that ruffly hem, the twin needle SEEMS to be pretty good on SEAMS as
well! See what I did there…? Seams...? Yeah...?
And here’s what the top looks like on! It fits! Which is much better than before! I
can actually breath in it, and it’s really comfortable. But, it's still tight enough
that I don’t have to wear a bra with it either which is great for me because I absolutely
hate wearing bras in summer! I also feel like with the orange and red it has this kind of…
superhero-costume sort of feel to it, kind of like the Incredibles, because of the two
colours being colourblocked like that? Am I the only one who’s getting that vibe?
Yeah? Oh well.
Anyway, that’s it for today’s episode and I’ll see you all in my next video! Bye!
Thank you to all of my wonderful Patreon supporters who helped to bring you this video! Check
out these two wonderful clothing stores, littleguntank - who makes the most gorgeous upcycled kid's
clothing - and Sarsparilly - who stocks a whole range of vintage-inspired and handmade
dresses. I guarantee you'll love them, check out the links to these stores in the description
box below. See ya!