Yay! I made this top using Spoonflower fabric featuring my own surface pattern design. Pretty cool. (You can find my designs on Spoonflower here if you’re curious.)

I’m making an effort this year to do more machine sewing so that I can get comfortable with it and be able to make my own clothes more quickly than I can by crocheting or handsewing. Both of those are things I love and feel comfortable doing, but they are time consuming and I can’t pile tons of handsewing projects on top of my crochet design load. So machine sewing it is!

I first traced a boxy-fitting top I already own onto some freezer paper to make a template/simple pattern piece. The only things I really altered were widening the neckline and shortening the hem length so that this top has a cropped fit. I used Spoonflower’s Cotton Poplin Ultra. While I think it will soften up nicely over time with wash and wear, I do feel it’s a bit stiff/structured for this boxy top.

While the top is overall very wearable, I did still make some silly mistakes with construction, so I thought I’d share them here along with things that went well.

I noticed this bit of raw fabric edge at the top of the shoulder seam after a second wash, but I’m not sure if it’s my fault. I do know that I was very careful when cutting the fabric and threads.

A big, silly mistake that I made was forgetting to pink the fabric edges before finishing the French seams. I’ve done French seams plenty of times, so I don’t know how I forgot. I think that, and my sewing machine having some thread tension issues I couldn’t work out contributed to this bunching under the arms. I also might need to curve the sewing along the underarm a big more broadly on my next attempt.

I had to attempt the bottom hem a few times. I wanted it to be a wide hem with a contrasting thread, but had a few issues keeping the stitching as straight as I wanted to first couple goes. The previous attempts did leave tiny holes in the fabric at first, but they cleared up nicely after a wash.

You can also see in this hem close-up how the thread tension was a bit wacky. It’s also probably a bit from me trying to get used to the speed control of my machine, as it’s still pretty new to me. I used my mom’s sewing machine growing up and it had a few setting for max speed that my little machine doesn’t.

Here’s where forgetting to pink the fabric edges before finishing the French seams comes into play again. This is a bit of raw edge sticking out along the shoulder seam. Again, a silly mistake and not the prettiest look, but It doesn’t effect wearing the top much and isn’t too noticable.

One thing I am happily surprised about is how the bias binding on the neckline turned out. It was my first time using bias tape and I was prepared to struggle a bit. While it’s not perfect, it looks way better than I imagined and the neckline sits really well when wearing the top.

I only used a yard of fabric but still wanted a wide-ish bottom hem, so the top is maybe an inch or two shorter than my preference, but honestly, I’ve worn it a couple times now and it’s felt very comfortable and easy to wear. I mentioned the fabric is a bit stiff for this top shape, so the bottom hem does show a good bit of midriff when arms are raised. Lengthening the hem or using a more drapey fabric might alleviate that issue.

Again, overall very happy with it even with the few mistakes. And I just love that butterfly print, but you guys know that by now. :)