Made By A Fabricista: Surgery, a pattern hack, and a hemming tip.

Hello sewing friends! I’m here on the blog today sharing a pattern hack I recently did to boost my wardrobe with a few pieces to wear during my recovery from surgery…and I’m also sharing a tip for those pesky rounded hems. So let’s jump in!

I recently had surgery on my neck due to issues with my parathyroid glands. All went to plan and I’m doing well, but I have to admit, the scar was a bit larger and more prominent than I expected. I definitely want to cover it up a bit during the healing process, and I realized that I own very few tops that cover that area of my neck. I don’t really love wearing high neck tops, so I came up with the idea to sew a top that I could convert back to my preferred style once I recover. 

The pattern I used to do this is the Laundry Day Tee from Love Notions. This pattern is a fan favorite in the sewing community and has been around for more than ten years. I love the style – fitted at the bust but with extra swing at the waist, with lots of sleeve and neckline options. For this project, I used a super soft rayon lycra from my Fabric Mart stash in a colorway and print that I think will work well in all seasons. I used stash fabric because the fabric I originally picked out for my project didn’t have quite enough drape, so I’m saving it for my next post. 

To start, first I sewed up the tee per the pattern with the scoop neck option:

I just love this fabric! It was a little slippery to sew but it is such a dream to wear. And the tee turned out lovely. But we’re not quite done – so here comes the hack. For the next part, I cut out the pattern pieces of the cowl neck, which is an option on this pattern. I sewed the two pieces together to make the full cowl, but next, instead of attaching it to the tee (remember, I already added a neckband), I serged the edges of the cowl neck together to make a separate piece. So - I have a detached cowl that I can wear with my coordinated tee. 

In the below pics, I’m actually wearing the cowl upside down, so the part that is supposed to be closest to the neckline is closest to my chin. I did this because it’s the narrower part and I wanted a higher fit.

I can also wear it with the cowl positioned correctly, but it doesn’t cover up my scar:

And here is me wearing the tee with just the scoop neck. It’s such a lovely pattern, and this post has inspired me to sew up a few more for Spring!  

And just for fun, I tried a look wearing the cowl around my waist to see what that would look like. Maybe I can pull this look off…

Ah, I almost forgot - the tip I promised in the title! This tee has a rounded hemline, and I find these SUCH a pain to sew. My favorite technique for sewing a rounded knit hemline is this. First, I serge around the hem with the differential on my serger set at 1.25. This gently pulls in the fabric so that when you hem it, it naturally wants to turn under a bit. And second, I use a glue stick to keep the hem in place while I press and then sew. I find rounded hems so hard to pin, and for me personally, I get much better results when I go with the serger/glue stick method. Here’s the process and the final results:

I hope this post inspires some new ideas in your sewing – maybe there’s a disconnected cowl top in your future too. 😊

Happy Sewing

Andrea  |  @happy.things.here