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This post is filled with all my favorite things – Rifle Paper Co, tank tops, new fabric and new patterns. This week might as well be Rifle Paper Co themed on my blog – because I got more coming your way on Wednesday!
When the Rifle Paper Co collection Les Fleurs came out last year, I bought so much of it – I loved every little thing about it. While the Wonderland Collection wasn’t really my style, the newest collection Menagerie makes my heart sing even more than Les Fleurs. As a birthday present to myself, I ordered some of the collection from Hawthorne Threads last week. Their shipping is so fast and it got to me by this weekend.
I always love Grainline Studio’s patterns on other people but have a problem sometimes with their block on me. The Scout Tee and the Willow Tank just do not fit me right no matter what I try. That being said, I do love the Linden and the Moss Skirt – so maybe it’s just a little hit or miss on me. That didn’t stop me from wanting to try out the Hadley Top when it came out a couple weeks ago though.
The Hadley Top has two views. View A has a jewel neckline a back pleat and long sleeves. View B (which I made) is a v-neck tank top. Both versions have a wide hem (my favorite feature!)
The top features all facings – neck facings, arm hole facings and hem facings. While I normally opt for bias binding, I wanted to make my first version with the facings – especially with the v-neck feature. I think on my next version, I would use bias binding on the arms and the v-neck but keep the hem facing. The front hem comes up pretty short and I really do like the deep hem.
I probably should have paid more attention to pattern matching the front and back seam – but I don’t think it looks too bad! V-necks and I are also never best friends, but I don’t think this one turned out too badly. I think doing bias binding next time might help the cause a little bit.
Although not directly related to the design or finished garment, my least favorite features were in the pattern formatting. The PDF pattern was 53 pages long (which is really long for a top!) but it had no print instructions for Version A or Version B. So I ended up having to print off the whole pattern instead of printing just the pages necessary for Version B. Also, I found a lot of confusing parts of the pattern instructions formatting. Version A and Version B are almost two different set of instructions but they’re intertwined in the instructions which was confusing at times.
Now let’s talk about this fabric – I couldn’t wait to cut into this. This is the new Cotton and Steel Rayon + Lawn blend. It’s pretty much exactly that! It has the stability of a lawn but the more flowy nature of a rayon. For those sewists who are nervous about the slinkyness or shiftyness (both of those are totally words!) this would be a really good option to try.
Hadley Top Summary:
Size Made: 6
View: View B
Fabric Used: Rifle Paper Co Rayon + Lawn from Hawthorne Threads
Notions Used: Dritz EZ Hem [my favorite tool for hemming!], Mettler Thread, Schmitz Universal Needles
Ease of Construction: No tricky bits here except for the v-neck, just that the facings take more time than the actual construction of the tank!
Fit: Fit is good on this – I think I would change out the facings on the arm holes and neck for bias binding and maybe lengthen the top by just a bit.
Repeatable? Yes! I think it would be really good in a traditional rayon too.