Made by Me: Sailor Stripes Top

Recently I was lucky enough to receive some lovely red, white and navy striped cotton jersey fabric from Rosy of Sewingadicta, as part of House of Pinheiro's Nautical Swap.

I love jersey tops, so it was the perfect gift.  However I didn't start cutting straight away, as I knew I wanted to do something special with it, not just make a plain t-shirt. 

Then a couple of weeks ago I was browsing through a magazine and saw this dress.



I immediately knew I wanted to do something similar with my striped jersey!

I decided on a top rather than a dress as I was a bit worried about having red, white and navy stripes all over the lower half of my body.

First I made myself a pattern.  I used a well fitting jersey top I already own as the basis, and set about working out the shapes I'd need to cut.

I ended up with a bit of a jigsaw, as you can see!


The next step was obviously trying to match those stripes as I cut each individual piece out.  I think I did pretty well!


I made the back plain:


I don't have an overlocker so I was a bit worried about the seams going horribly wobbly as I sewed them.  After a bit of thought I decided to stabilise one side of each seam with a very thin strip of fusible interfacing.  You might just be able to see it in this photo.


The interfacing I used had a bit of give in one direction, so I made sure I took advantage of that.  I then spent quite a bit of time making sure I'd got all the necessary stripes lined up and tacked each seam before I sewed it.

It was definitely worth spending the time on these steps as it made the actual sewing much easier.

Because the stripes on the front went here, there and everywhere I didn't even try and match them with the back, but I did manage to get some of the body/sleeve stripes matching.  They're good enough for me anyway!

Here's a photo of me modelling it - the same one you saw earlier this week in my MMM post!


I'm keeping my jigsaw of pattern pieces, as I could see these diagonal waist stripes looking good on a plain dress, black and white on a black dress possibly?

I'll just add that to my ever growing list of ideas!

26 comments

  1. Your top is so special. I am in awe of your skill in interpreting the inspiration dress and executing the stripe matching. Plus, it looks great on you!

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    1. Thank you! That's one of the things I love about being able to sew - seeing a photo of something and being able to make it (or something similar) myself.

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  2. I loved this top when I saw it in the Flickr group. Great idea with interfacing. Love the idea of using the pattern on a dress.

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    1. Thank you Claire. Yes, the interfacing worked a treat.

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  3. Oh I love it, you are so clever. Well done Sam :)

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    1. Thank you Jacq! You might not think me so clever if you'd have seen all the head scratching that went on while I was trying to work out which way I needed the stripes to run so they matched!;-)

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  4. That is so cool, Sam! It looks amazing! Cutting a pattern up like that is the sort of thing I never think to do, but when I see it done I think, "Oh, that's a great idea!"

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    1. Thank you Gail. It was really fun to do!

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  5. Holy moly that top is WONDERFUL!!!

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  6. Wow! Looks amazing.

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  7. Cooooool! Awesome idea and your execution is perfect. Look at the stripe matching! :)

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    1. Aw thank you. I'm pretty pleased with the stripe matching, even though I say so myself!

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  8. That is a great top you have produced. Love the effect the stripes have given it. Great job.

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  9. That is so cute! Great idea and turned out really well!

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  10. Really inventive Sam, and so effective. What a great job, looks stunning

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    1. Thanks Winnie, I'm really pleased that it turned out how I imagined it!

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  11. Wow, it looks fabulous! perfect stripe matching, which creates an interesting and flattering effect on the front. Beautiful work :)

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    1. Thank you Carolyn. I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with that stripe matching!

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  12. Hi. Just letting you know I have nominated you for a Versatile Blogger Award. Some people love awards, some people don’t. Please don’t feel any pressure to participate. It is entirely up to you. Just my way of letting you know I enjoy your blog.

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    1. Thank you, that's really lovely of you. I'm glad you enjoy my blog.

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  13. Wow! Girl! You are incredibly creative and smart! I'm going to copy your idea your permission ... I'll go buy some more of that fabric in my fabric store and make a top like yours one .. hehe. Can I do it? please, please ....

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    1. Rosy, of course you are welcome to make one yourself. I feel honoured that you like mine enough to want one too. Thank you again for the fabric.

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Thank you so much for your comment, every one is read and appreciated. It means a lot to me that you take the time to read and comment on my posts.