Meshin' Around

I'm feeling under the weather today. I always get sick after Thanksgiving. I think I must be allergic to turkey. I can't even begin to face food today, so I figured I would let DH take the kids while I pop tums and spend time in my sewing room. I'm trying to clear out some stash fabric (yeah, as if!), and I had a couple of pieces I had grabbed for a brown fall grouping. One of them is a super soft jersey (since sold out, sorry) in bittersweet chocolate. The other is this really fun Walk on the Wild Side Mesh.

I had this idea that a mesh top would be nice, but face it - unless you are 17 years old and live in a very warm clime, a mesh top is a wee bit impractical. Plus, I went through that phase back in the early 90s where I would wear a sheer top with a black bra, and there is no way I'm going back to that club girl look. That would be very, very bad.

The idea came to me to make a top that has a built in liner, and I immediately thought of J. Stern Designs Tee Pattern. The design has separate pieces for the upper and lower bodice, so it would work perfectly with no alterations. I set to work.

It really was quite simple. I've already made this tee, and You can see my review of it here. I made a few changes to get the results I desired. First, I cut the lower front and lower back bodice pieces from both fabrics:

I underlined the lace with the solid jersey, basting them together and then treating them as one fabric.

I cut the bodice top pieces and the sleeves from just the lace. Though if you want, you can create a nice design touch by underlining the sleeves and bodice side front, leaving just the upper front and upper back bodice pieces unlined.
To sew the lace pieces, I set the stitch length on my serger to 2mm. That's about half the stitch length that I usually use, but since this mesh is so, well, meshy, I wanted to be sure there was enough coverage in the seam. I also reinforced the shoulders with a 1/4 inch strip of fusible tricot interfacing sewn into the seam.

I made a 1-inch by 19 inch facing strip for the neckline using the solid jersey. I eased the neckline onto that using a 2.5 mm zigzag stitch. I would have preferred to use my coverstitch machine (yes, one of these days I will get around to posting about that beast!), but I really don't feel up to leaving the house. So I made do.

Finally, I did a narrow overlock on the hems of the top. Again, had I been feeling up to it I would have prefered to head up to the studio and run it through the CS. Next time. Here you can see the result on Shelley.
I really like the fact that this gives the pattern a completely different look. I'm thinking I'll give this to my neice when she comes home for Christmas. I think it will look really cute on her, and it will give her something to wear for New Years.

Tomorrow I hope to make lots of progress on my coat if I'm feeling better. Tatiana's dress is also coming along, but she wants to change some of the design. Tell me again why I wanted to do this? Oh yeah... it's a challenge!

Happy sewing!