There was a massive sale on My Image and Young Image magazines a few months ago, and since I already own all the My Image issues, I thought I’d take the opportunity to buy all the Young Image ones for my niece Megan, who recently taken up sewing in a big way.
I figured it’d be inspiring for her to see at least one of the designs made up, so I thought I’d sew one for her before sending the magazines back to America.
My mom went through the stack when she was over in October and picked out some designs she thought Megan would like. Ultimately, I decided on Young Image FW12 Y1252 since I already had some perfect purple cotton jersey in my stash (you may also remember it from this skirt), which my mom also thought looked like her style.
Happily, most Young Image designs go up to tween sizes so I made her size 152 as the measurements matched hers almost exactly (she’s 5 feet tall already, how did this happen?!).
The gathering isn’t quite like in the tech drawing, though – the gathering on the pattern pieces is in one section in the centre front, rather than in two segments. I double-checked the pattern sheet to make sure I wasn’t just omitting a mark, and then also experimented to see if the gathering would work concentrated in two spots, but fell back on the one long stretch of gathering, which I think looks really good here.
A serging mishap during the construction of the front gathered seam meant the horizontal seam is raised one inch on my version. I had to cut out the old seam (there is no way I will ever unpick an overlocked seam just to gain 1/4” back!), and then I raised the back seam by the same amount to keep everything matching.
As reports suggest that my niece has really long arms, I lengthened the sleeve by 2”, and they seem to fit her really well when she’s not go them scrunched up!
Don’t be alarmed by all the vertical seams in the tech drawing – these are all straight seam, and I was able to place everything on the fold apart from the upper back, so there’s just one seam there. I think this makes the top look a bit more RTW, so if you’ve got enough fabric, you can really eliminate all of them.
I serged the neck binding on, then topstitched the seam allowance down, like I would for any teeshirt. I used my coverstitch on the sleeve hems and that lovely, shaped bottom hem – I think that’s a really nice touch on this pattern!
My mom took this back in her suitcase and bought leggings to match, so both were her Christmas gift!
PS: voting is now open in the Pattern Review “Sewing for Children” contest if you’d liked the hoodie I made my nephew! Megan’s tunic was sewn in October so ineligible, or else I would’ve entered it, too…