I briefly mentioned the Crop Top design last week when I showed you how to add bust support into the Vest Top, but this week is all about the Crop Top design from my “Sew Your Own Activewear” book! On first glance you might be mistaken for thinking it’s just a shortened version of the Vest Top, but it’s got a lot of unique features of its own.
The “Sew Your Own Activewear” Crop Top
Elastic edges three ways
Today I’d like to show you how you can change up the look of your “Sew Your Own Activewear” Vest Top by simply changing the way you finish off the neckline and armhole edges. Elastic edges are super important in activewear as they hold the fabric close to the body, reducing the risk of chafing, but also making it less likely to get caught on things (a real safety risk when climbing!), or exposing yourself accidentally (hello downward dog!), and also to keep contents from falling out of your pockets, too.
These methods are great ones to have in your sewing skillset as you can also use them on the Crop Top (which we’ll be looking at more next week!) as well as my XYT Workout Top pattern. All three of these methods can be done on your basic sewing machine, and once you get the hang of them, you’ll find all sorts of uses!
How To Add Bust Support to the Vest Top
Earlier this week I introduced you to the Vest Top design from my “Sew Your Own Activewear” book, and today I’d like to show you how you can add some bust support to it so that you can wear it without a separate sports bra if you wish. The Crop Top design uses some of the same pieces as the Vest Top but includes two layers of power mesh to add support for low- to medium-impact activities, so we’re going to use portions of both designs to create a Vest Top with support inside but the same appearance outside.
The “Sew Your Own Activewear” Vest Top
What better place to start than the Vest Top, which is featured on the cover of the book? The description of this design is:
This close fitting, sleeveless top is ideal for the gym, climbing wall, tennis court, or any outdoor warm weather exercise. It features a flattering waistband, scoop neckline and front princess seams for enhanced fitting possibilities. On the back, a triangular shoulder yoke adds visual interest while leaving your shoulder blades unencumbered. Sew this up in thin, wicking, four-way stretch fabrics with either contrast or hidden elastic edges.
A Houndstooth-Quilted Top & Olive Trousers
It seems like no matter how many separates I make, I always seem to need more in my wardrobe. I feel like I do a pretty good job at sewing what I actually wear, but each morning when I go to get dressed for the office, I still end up reaching for the same few pairs of jeans and trousers, so I wanted to shake things up a bit and sew something outside my comfort zone that would still be useful and acceptable to wear to work.
Pre-Order my Book to Get a Free Bonus Pattern!
Things are starting to ramp up with my upcoming “Sew Your Own Activewear” book now that the final, final (no really, FINAL!) edits are finished, print and digital pattern versions have been polished, layered, and updated with the spiffy new book fonts, and the marketing ladies at my publishers have been devising plans for the new year’s launch fun!
I’d like to thank every single one of you who’ve gone and pre-ordered the book already, either from me directly, or on Amazon – I’m truly blown away by how many of you cannot wait to get your hands on this!! It’s about to get even better though, because on top of all the thirteen designs I created for the book, I also created a little bonus pattern at the same time to reward everyone’s who’s waiting patiently for their pre-order!
Happy Halloween! Fox meets Badger…
We’re not overly enthusiastic when it comes to Halloween, but give us an occasion and my god, we’ll rise to it! So when we found out that our favourite cocktail bars, Merchant House and its sister bar Merchant House of Fleet Street, were going to hold Halloween parties this year with a prize for best costume, we started scheming… After a few weeks deliberation, we decided to go as a fox and a badger, the two mascots of the bars which represent the two owners (who kinda look like a fox and a badger each!).
A Raglan Tee full of kitties and bunnies
It’s been a while since I showed you any of my finished garments, mostly because they’ve predominantly been using designs from my Sew Your Own Activewear book (which you can pre-order signed copies of now!) and I don’t want to show you too much too soon and risk it all feeling stale by the time January actually rolls around. But this one is just so bonkers and so much fun that I can’t help but share it now!
On location with my athlete models
My sewing activewear book won’t be out til early 2018, but due to lead times in the publishing world, the words are already written, illustrations drawn, patterns drafted, and samples sewn. Some of you may think I’m just being a cruel tease by not showing you all 13 designs right now but honestly, it’s better this way – if I revealed all now, not only would you still have to wait til next year to sew them up anyway, but they’d also be tired and old in your mind – “Didn’t I already see this design somewhere before…?”. So at least this way you may have to wait a while to see everything, but you’ll be able to start sewing them without too much of a gap. When I do have bits I can share, however, I’m happy to do so as I know so many of you are as excited as I am to see its arrival, which is awesome!
One big advantage of working with a major international publisher is that they know how to best shoot and show off the designs I’ve created. From the very first meeting I requested to bring my own athlete models, as I wanted to showcase real women who workout – not just models doing a fake run for the cameras. For the 13 designs we’d need 3 athlete models, and since some of the shots would be in a studio, it made sense for the publisher to source an athlete closer to their base in Devon – and Jade is every bit as strong and lovely as the ladies who’ve modelled for FehrTrade Patterns over the years!
London Marathon shorts and vest
This marathon has been entwined with writing my book since the day talks began with my publisher, as the deadline for the writing has always been the day after the marathon. Some people groan when I tell them that, but honestly, the day after is perfect. If the deadline was a week or two after the marathon, my head would’ve been full of all the things I needed to finish and stress on getting everything done. Having the deadline the day after meant everything was already finished, I could relax, and use the race not only as a celebration of all my hard training, but a celebration of writing a freaking book, too!
My publishers asked if I wouldn’t mind running the marathon in designs from the book to help with marketing down the line, and as it turned out, I was able to squeeze in not only a pair of shorts but a top as well! I’ve run all 6 of my previous marathons in me-made gear, but I usually wear a Run dem Crew shirt or vest on top. This time I wanted to both rep my crew AND show off my book designs, so I made my shorts and vest from modified designs which will appear in my book (coming out early 2018), and took the vest up to Big Teezar in Camden to get the RDC logo and my name vinyl printed onto the front.