Pirate Chic

So I made this Built by Wendy top (Simplicity 2865) and then wore it to my nephew's birthday party.... which just happened to be a pirate party. It was kind of funny. It looked like I made just for the pirate party, but I didn't really. I wanted to use a striped fabric because of the side pieces in the pattern and I found this black and white stripe knit at Hancock for $2 a yard. This is also part of my campaign to sew fabrics that I am not comfortable sewing. I've pretty much stuck to woven cottons or cotton blends. I'm trying to use other fabrics and sew out of my comfort zone. I find that when I try something really difficult or just different, I learn so much!




I sew with a very basic Singer from K-mart, so I don't have any fancy ways of finishing seams. I've sewn a few patterns that enclosed all the seams withing a lining and another where all the seams were bound and I really liked the clean finish inside of the garment. It makes a difference when you wear something that is finished on the inside. I just feel better about the construction of the garment- like I won't bend over and rip a seam apart :) So, I wanted to figure out a way to sew a knit but also keep from having raw edges inside. That's when I came across the flat felled seam. It's been one of the most useful techniques I've learned recently. It leaves a nice detail on the outside of the garment while leaving no raw edges inside. I'm going to use flat felled seams in an upcoming project, so I will try and take some pictures of the steps. But, I found tons of great tutorials on the Internet.



I added the flowers after seeing an appliqued tee in a Garnet Hill catalog. I just cut different sized organic shapes and gathered them through the middle. Then I tacked them on by hand. This shirt has already been through the wash a couple of times and it's held up pretty well. That's always exciting for me! Now that I am looking at my pictures, though, I'm thinking I look a little like a referee :).