No, I didn't make this cake for Valentines Day. I made it last week for DD2's 15th birthday. Generally, my kids request devils food cake with butter cream frosting for their birthday. But, Happy V Day, just the same. ;)
I've been suffering from a bit of sewing malaise lately. I see, from other blogs I read, that I am not alone. In this case, my solution was to make one simple project, and one fun project.
First, the fun project. I ordered some of that great jumbo hook & eye tape in black/silver from the Vogue Fabrics store. (They also carry white which you could dye.)
But what to do with this dramatic notion?
I saw a boutique top that used the same hook and eye tape, not only to close the top, but also on the pocket. I decided I liked that clever idea. I had a bit of an interesting fabric that I had used to line three of my skirts. I liked it so much, I decided to save the last bit for a top. The slightly textured fabric contains a synthetic fiber and is striped such that there are sheer stripes and solid stripes. It almost feels like an organza, but not quite. Because of the sheer stripes, I doubled the fabric for the front and back, but used a single layer for the sleeves.
For the pattern, I used my TNT t-shirt pattern that has been so altered, it no longer resembles the original New Look pattern. I extended the right front several inches and added a pocket to the right side. I cut the sleeves so that the fringed selvedge was at the wrist. I also added a strip of selvedge to the bottom of the top.
To apply the tape: I used zipper foot and used the width of the zipper foot to position the stitching line. There was no way to turn under the cut edge of the tape – there was not enough play, so I used Fray Block to prevent it from raveling. (One of my favorite notions is Fray Block.)
The pocket
The sleeve with the selvedge hem. You can see the sheerness of a single layer of the fabric.
For Christmas I made my friend a copy of a Flax top that she had loved. I made myself one of these tops. Mine used a different knit that was a bit more stable, but I did put darts in the arm holes to remove gaposis.
A geranium leaf peeks out of the pocket.
Hopefully I can get my sewing mojo back to attack some of the more ambitious projects I want to make. :)
