A trio of Santa Fe tops from Hey June for the first day of June!!
I love me a drapey tee. The tank versions are pretty cute, too. Lots of great options in this pattern. I really like the shape of the Santa Fe top! It reminds me a bit of the Hot Patterns Shirt Tail Tee, shapewise, but swingier, with a wider neckline, and with some different design elements that I dig. The top is perfectly breezy for Bangkok's hot weather. And it doesn't cling to my mid-section, hooray!
The Santa Fe top pattern was so nice that I made it thrice. And I'll probably make more in the future, maybe one of the tank versions! Here are my three versions, all tees, all pretty great.
Santa Fe #1:
This is my wearable muslin of the Santa Fe top. I made view F. I think the triangular, raglan-esque insets on the sides are really cool.
The bodice is made from some paint-spattered, striped fabric I got as part of a novelty stripes bundle from the Imagine Gnats shop (affiliate link). Fairly thin, but obviously lots of drape. The sleeves and neck binding are cut from scraps of Laguna jersey from another project. Although the Santa Fe calls for a super drapey, non-cotton knit for the top, I thought the relatively less drapey knit would be fine for the sleeves. I was right! It worked out pretty well! I'd say it's most important to have the bodice part made from a fabric with lots of drape.
I left the top unhemmed because I knew this knit would be a headache to hem... I just used a little bit of Fray Check on the ends of each seam to ensure the serger threads didn't unravel.
I went with the size that corresponded with my measurements, an XL. Perhaps I could go down a size, but I'm not unhappy with this one, so I didn't.
Not quite sure I aced the point where the triangular insets meet under the arm. I think I know why, though: I tried to press my seam allowances upwards toward the thicker, darker fabric. I think they should be pressed downwards, really. Now it's a little bit bumpy and not lined up in that area. But again, something most people wouldn't notice. I'll get it right on the next one!
Santa Fe #2:
This is view C, same size as the previous top, but cut on the fold to eliminate the center front and back seams, which makes it super quick to cut out and sew.
The fabric is some thin, slubby, eye-searingly bright neon striped cotton I got at Girl Charlee a couple years ago. A bit sheer, but, again, perfect for Santa Fe. I did a decent job stripe matching, although I had a brain fart when I cut the cuffs on the cross-grain and they didn't line up. Oh well.
The neck binding is a little bit wider than the pattern piece- I cut it the width of one of the yellow stripes. I opted not to hem this top, either, because I am lazy.
Santa Fe #3:
View C again, but with the center front and back seams.
The fabric is some burnout jersey from Girl Charlee from several years ago (you might remember that I made my sister a Plantain t-shirt out of it almost two years ago). The jersey was advertised as medium weight, but is the sheerest, lightest weight tissue knit ever. This is how I feel about sewing with tissue weight jersey. How can a fabric be simultaneously slippery and sticky?! Uuuuuuhhhhhhh. But I love the way the fabric looks, so I soldiered on. In the end, it actually works really well for the Santa Fe top.
My serged seams were super ripply until I topstitched them down on one side of the seam. I topstitched the center front and back seams as well as the shoulder seams, but not the side seams. The topstitching provides just a hint of structure that this knit needs.
I opted to skip the sleeve cuffs and hemming. This knit is a nightmare to hem and I figured the cuffs would be too floppy/saggy. I just left the ends of the sleeves raw, too. We'll see how it goes.
