Wiksten Tank Sew-Along

Sewing! I am excited about sewing.  It still takes me a long time to plan and execute each project, but I am really excited about growing my skills and being able to further customize my wardrobe.  

Jessica and I recently devised our own little sew-along to make the Wiksten Tank.  We got together once to cut our pattern pieces and another time to sew it.  We each had a bit more finishing up to do after our second meeting so we set a deadline to keep the momentum going: brunch a week later.  The agreement was that we would both be done and wear our shirts.  And, it worked!  Here is the 360 degree view (Thanks for the photos, Noah!):

I learned a lot while sewing this pattern.  I was attracted to it in the first place because the techniques used yield a really polished garment.  Particularly, the garment features matching binding around the arms, neck and hems and french seams on the shoulder and side seams.  The rounded hem also lent a bit of a challenge to the project.

armhole binding and french side seam

neck and armhole binding and french seam on the shoulder

I am sure you have noticed how WRINKLY it is.  I made this out of a linen fabric (from an Anna Maria Horner line, I think), so it wrinkles easily and holds the wrinkles for a long time.  The fabric is probably a bit too heavy and stiff for this pattern because the weight of the fabric really prevents it from draping well.  And, with the lack of any waist shaping, it really needs to drape more for me to want to wear it.  My hope is that since it will soften over time that I will like it more later.  At this point it is far too tent-ish for my taste.  Jessica chose a much lighter weight fabric and her tank drapes very nicely.

Over time and through a lot of lessons learned, I have developed a pretty good screening system when it comes to looking at knitting patterns.  I can tell by looking if the finished garment will be problematic for me. I can look past the styling and "lifestyle" aspect of beautiful pattern pictures and assess the true merit of the pattern when it comes to my preferences.  I have a lot to learn when it comes to the screening of sewing patterns.  If I had better screening skills, I could have looked at the pattern photos and known that the shaping was going to be a poor match for my style.  But, I guess this is the price I pay for getting better at sewing and project selection.

I am not deterred!  I have already bought the pattern and fabric for my next project.  It's a bra!  I probably won't be modeling that one for you, but I will certainly share it when I am done.  So, I guess that requires that I get started...maybe I need another sew-along.