Simplicity 1801 Gathered Top

Simplicity 1801 in Rayon Challis

For approximately the entire month of July I have been working on this darn shirt.  It had very little to do with the shirt and a LOT to do with my impatience and not reading the directions and the fact that this fabric is a delicate challis. I started off pre-washing the fabric and ended up with two small holes, so I knew that I would have to be careful working with this (and washing it later).  I made a size 12 at the waist and blended up into a size 14 for my shoulders (or possibly the other way around?).  I think the fit turned out perfect! I also didn’t do very well with marking when I was cutting out the fabric so I had to do some guesswork when I was doing the gathering on pretty much the entire shirt.  Oops!  Sometimes those marks are important! As for the pockets… well, all I can say is I tried.  I inserted one just fine.  For the second one I decided I didn’t want to follow the directions.  Well, turns out you have to insert it all special since the zipper goes down behind it.  The fabric was too delicate to unpick all those stitches so I ended up taking it to my serger and just cutting off the pocket fabric.

Simplicity 1801 in Rayon Challis

I also attached the midriff pieces on “inside out”.  I attached the interfaced pieces to the inside and the non-interfaced pieces to the outside.  This isn’t too much of a problem except that the interfaced pieces need to hold the “skirt”!  Well, knowing that this fabric would just rip apart if I attached it as directed (to the outside piece, without interfacing), I had to improvise.  I attached it to the inside piece, then took the outsides and pinned them down and did some decorative top-stitching instead! I had some issues hemming the curved front, but that’s something I’m trying to work on.  I just still struggle for some reason, but it has nothing to do with the pattern difficulty.  I would say the pattern is really not that difficult if you follow the directions completely and make sure all of your markings are on there. PS: Some people are telling me to wear this with leggings instead of jeans, what’s you opinion?

Simplicity 1801 in Rayon Challis

2 Comments

  1. STL Mom · August 19, 2014 Reply

    Cute top! Sure, try it with leggings, or even a pencil skirt.
    I’m getting back into sewing after some time off and it helps to read about others making mistakes and figuring out how to fix them — especially when the end result looks great!

    • Amanda Renea · August 19, 2014 Reply

      Thanks for your compliment, you’re actually my first ever (non spam) comment! I never even thought about a pencil skirt!

      We all have to learn somewhere and we all make mistakes, right? Why not help others learn from our mistakes along the way, right? That’s what I want to do with my blog: share things I make and help others in case they make the same or similar mistakes I make.

      Please check back occasionally and let me know if you have any questions about sewing!

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