Sewing Indie Month!

What’s this? Could it be? A pattern I HAVEN’T made a million times before? Why, yes! 

And no. This humble tank is one of my entries for Sewing Indie month challenge. It’s the Sewn Square One “Go Anywhere” pattern, which is designed to be a woven dress. I wan’t planning on making anything to enter, but Mari and all the other designers have worked so hard to organize it all that I just *had* to jump in! (Plus, awesome prizes!) 

As it happens, I have made this pattern before… just not in a long time! Here are my summer and winter versions below:

The cool princess seam style lines are the obvious attraction to this pattern, so I chose a kinda stripy fabric and played with direction: 

I have trouble predicting what will be a pleasing or flattering arrangement of stripes, so I just cut and hoped for the best. Same with sewing… I serged the princess seams without any pins, because, well, that’s who I am. It all turned out surprisingly well! 

That said, there were quite a few alterations to make the tunic/dress bodice fit as a knit tank: 

• lowered neckline several inches, and could have gone lower…


• narrowed shoulders (and again, could have gone narrower!)


• created a high-low hem


• used bands to finish the neck and arms, pulling quite tight on the arms to bring up the low armscye


• straightened some of the princess seams slightly, since the jersey would drape and stretch


• add ease when cutting to make it a looser swingy top… then took out extra ease later on, so who knows it I came out with a net increase or decrease!

I had fun taking the photos with my tripod and timer. I’ve been working this week on focusing more carefully (I have to focus it before I jump in frame, and then when I do get in frame the focus is set for the background so I tend to be blurry. Instead, for these pictures I focused on the railings, then moved the camera back slightly so that when I’m in front of the railing to focal length is right for me. Does that make any sense?) I was also inspired by the photo tips from the always-gorgeous Creating In The Gap , who mentions that she likes to stand with the sun diagonally behind her. It was fun to play with a different kind of lighting! 

I’ve really been enjoying the cross-posting between the different pattern companies this month as part of Indie Sewing Month. Along with the Perfect Pattern Parcels and other projects, it seems like the indie world is really joining together. I’m curious to see where that ends up!