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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Finished! Megan Nielsen Wrap Top


For the "Nuthin' but the facts, ma'am" version of this review, feel free to pop over to my official PR review. :)

This project came together super fast, but I procrastinated on it quite a bit. I was really intimidated by cutting out the long (LONG) fabric pieces. Three yards!! Three yards of fabric for the wrap ties! They were longer than my cutting mats allowed, so I had to do some of the cutting with scissors. And I hate cutting with scissors. But it was totally worth it. :)

And then, I procrastinated a bit more because I didn't want to deal with my serger. Now, I usually don't mind re-threading the thing. It's kind of the nature of the beast. But recently I've been having a really hard time finding the correct tension...and many times I'm not even completely satisfied with it but I continue on anyway. Then it dawned on me that there are many, many sewists that construct their knit garments completely on the sewing machine. So that's what I did. And it worked great.  And I've finished two more knit tops on my sewing machine.  I even did a white top...and my serger actually already had white thread in it!!! Poor, neglected serger. 

After I ordered my fabric, I started to doubt that I'd make another one of these. Why?? The yardage requirement. You need 4 yards of fabric. It cost me $33 with shipping for this brown rayon from High End Fabrics. The $33 plus the $15 cost of the pattern equals more (much more) than I would spend on a maternity top. And then, lo & behold...lookee what I found:


A bargain at $115 (the long sleeve version is $125). I don't spend that much money on...well, anything wardrobe related.  But, it is listed as one of their best sellers, and I've seen a few bloggers that have purchased this top. Either way, I love that I just made up a "designer knock off" top for 1/2 of what it would have cost to buy. So that's pretty neat.


As for the pattern itself, I cannot recommend it enough.  It comes together very quickly & is well drafted.  I did have problems with the back shoulder seam being wider than the front, but the pattern pieces themselves line up so I must've been the problem.It came together very quickly (aside from my procrastination). The only change I made was to stabilize the shoulder seams & I also sewed the sleeves in flat. 

I had decided early on that I wasn't going to hem all 3 yards of the sashes, but I did decide to hem them neckline & sleeves.  I hemmed 26" from the shoulder seams down the sashes.  Since the hemmed part of the sashes is hidden under the un-hemmed sashes, the top still looks cohesive.

4 comments:

  1. This is LOVELY!! It is made well, and you look so wonderful in it!! I'm glad it went together well, and it sounds like a great pattern to work with.

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  2. How many times do you have it wrapped? Does it get hot??? I have eyeballed the exact top you "knocked off" for 3 of my now 4 pregnancies and am trying to justify the $15 pattern for "only" the shirt as many patterns include other wardrobe pieces too and for less $
    Sarah Butcher

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  3. Hi Sarah!! It wraps around...a lot. I haven't counted but it's probably around 10. It doesn't seem to get hot, but the weather here is still pretty cool. I do tend to adjust it quite a bit after I stand up from sitting down & such. I had a hard time spending $15 on one pattern, too. If you have a wrap shirt pattern already, you could probably just extend the center front seam into sashes. Maybe give that a try before you put out the money.

    What are your favorite maternity patterns??

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  4. This looks GREAT. I saw your photos posted on Flickr and clicked on over (I just made the Rie Dress). That is a crazy amount of fabric for one top, but it sure looks cute!

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