A Tale of Two Tops

Stores where I teach like to have display samples. They prefer to have display samples in fabrics they carry so they can sell more fabric. I get that. As much as I can, I try to accommodate the stores. When it comes to clothing classes, I make the display samples in my size so I get some use of out them. (I am providing the fabric.) Also, I think it helps students to see clothing made for real people, not 98-pound models.

The quilt store here in Kalispell carries a fair bit of apparel fabric, including ponte, rayon batiks, and linen/rayon blends. The store in Missoula doesn’t carry any apparel fabric. Making their samples is a bit more challenging. They don’t require students to buy fabric for classes from them, but they want to encourage people to shop at stores other than Hobby Lobby, Walmart, and Joanns. If a student can’t find fabric at the quilt store, the quilt store will send them over to The Confident Stitch. I may specify in the supply list to bring muslin fabric. Sometimes we need to use less expensive fabrics to make the first iteration and refine the fit, because it is demoralizing for students to use expensive fabric on something they can’t wear.

For the Missoula store’s display sample, I chose the Fableism fabric. You’ll see from the photo that perhaps it isn’t technically an apparel fabric, but The Confident Stitch carries it and it did make a comfortable Cadence Top. Quilting cottons, lovely though they may be, don’t usually lend themselves well to garments, although some of the lawns and sateens work.

I wish I had a good way to get photos of me wearing these tops, because I think it would be more informative. The dress form will have to do.

I tested out a mashup of the upper bodice of the Cadence with the lower half of New Look 6543 and I think I have created the perfect woven tee pattern for me:

This is one of the rayon batiks that our store carries. You can see how much flowier it is than the Fableism fabric. I love the way this one fits and definitely prefer the French darts to horizontal bust darts. I also set in the sleeves in via the conventional method and they went in perfectly without the need for any ease stitches.

[I look at this top and I totally understand why I can’t wear store-bought tops—they are a good 6" or 8" too short, and this is far from tunic length on me. It hits about mid-hip.]

I see a batch of these tops in my future, although I am not yet ready for spring sewing. Social media is full of sewists starting to work on spring projects, and I’m going to be wearing sweater knits for at least another two months. I do have half a dozen chunks of rayon batiks in my stash, though, that will get made into more T’s and possibly a dress or two as warm weather approaches.

After I finished this top, I spent some time cleaning and organizing my sewing area. I need to stop procrastinating the pocket construction steps of that Place for Everything tote, so those have been stacked up next to the machine. And because seeing and comparing patterns is so helpful for cementing some of these fitting concepts into my brain, I traced the Amarena Dress (Liesl + Co). I have no intention of making it up right now, but I was able to compare the way it was drafted to the Cadence Top and the Scout Tee.

Honestly, I am a bit tired of making clothes. If I hadn’t had to get the shop sample done, I would have been working on quilts and bags.

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The article about Joanns on the Craft Industry Alliance website disappeared for a bit yesterday. When it was reposted, the photo at the top of the article had been changed. The original photo was obviously an AI-generated image—an amateurish one, at that—and it was called out by several commenters. The photo was removed and replaced with a photo of the front of a Joanns store, along with a note that the Craft Industry Alliance was drafting a policy for use of artificial intelligence-generated images.

I get that AI is almost inevitable at this point, Luddite though I may be sometimes, I realize I can’t stem this tide. However, I wish we would not rush headlong into incorporating it thoughtlessly into every part of our lives. New! Shiny!—Oh, wait, you mean there are some drawbacks?

I’ve dabbled with ChatGPT a bit, but I always feel like I need a shower afterwards. I have zero faith in humanity, and I know AI will be used for nefarious purposes. I just wish we were smarter than that.