After I sewed The Kiss dress, I had a fair bit of fabric leftover, but it was in odd shapes due to the asymmetric cutting layout. It looked like I should be able to fit a teeshirt or a vest top (tank top) out of the remnants… and since I’ve got a lot of teeshirts that fit, but hardly anything sleeveless, I opted for the latter.
Jalie 3245 (View C) is an “oldie but a goodie”! I first made this pattern back in 2018 as part of my “Serging Activewear” Craftsy course (still going strong!). I’m still wearing those bamboo OGs, but they’re getting a little tight and they always felt a tad too long.
Since I own the paper pattern of this, I just traced it again, in size DD, then folded 6cm length out from the bottom third-ish. Both were very easy fixes!
The fabric is The Kiss jersey, leftover from my dress, but originally from Dalston Mill as part of a wider fine art series of fabrics. Since this was leftover from the original project, that means it was FREE in my mind! (Anyone else’s brain work that way too??)
I did indeed have just the right amount leftover for this, but I didn’t remember that this was a directional print until I’d already cut out the Back! Oops. But luckily I remembered in time to re-pin and cut the Front facing the right direction. It’s such a busy print I doubt anyone but me will ever notice!
The original pattern has the neckline and armholes bound with a method I haaaaated back in the day (and looks messy no matter what you do, I swear). I remembered this so widened the binding pieces by 1.5-2cm-ish so I could apply them as bands instead. Much better!
There’s some hidden bust easing in the side seams, which I’d forgotten all about from the last time I’d sewed this pattern. Basically there’s two notches even with the bust area, and some excess in the Front, so you have to stretch the Back as you sew do they match up. This basically gives you the bust room of a dart without actually sewing one.
I still love this fabric, and I’m thrilled to now have a way to wear it all year round! And now that I’ve got the pattern traced and have confirmed I liked the fit, I ended up sewing a few more of these, too… so stay tuned!