Thursday, May 18, 2017

Color-blocked Santa Fe

No need to reinvent the wheel today, but I've got a fun new top to share! Despite my reservations about the sleeveless Santa Fe tops I've made, I've been wearing the heck out of my version with sleeves. Once I sewed the last stitch of my Kelly Anorak, I knew I desperately needed a palette cleanser, so another Santa Fe landed on my sewing table almost immediately.


Shockingly, I have no basic white tees in my wardrobe. I found this cut of lightweight, terribly off-grain cotton jersey hiding out in my stash. It was less than a yard, so not big enough for anything unless I could get creative. Trying to match the weight as closely as possible, I decided to use some black burnout knit and color-block. I love how it turned out!


I think the jersey was from Girl Charlee, back before I gave up on their quality, and the burnout is from Jo-Ann's I believe. I only had a small piece of the black as well, so this was definitely a stash-busting project.


This is a small. I chose to make my seam line roughly halfway through the sleeve. I played around with the two colors for binding and cuffs and decided on black for both. The cuffs are topstitched down to prevent flapping (which happens on my other top).

Yes, I'm wearing a black bra because I'm just that cool.

I did add some length to the bottom because I honestly had no idea if I had prewashed the fabric (again, see why A Sewist's Swatch Book became so necessary for me?!). If it shrinks a bit in the wash it won't be the end of the world, it's plenty big enough right now. I did not hem.


Sometimes all it takes to jazz up an old standby is a little color-blocking, and maybe even playing with length. I ended up with this cool effect on the sides as well.


One final construction note: the burnout was alternately fine and tricky to sew. With the serger it was fine (I lessened the presser foot pressure and increased the differential feed), but on my regular sewing machine I needed to use tissue paper underneath so it wouldn't get sucked down into the throat plate. French seams would also be a good option, but I was in a hurry and just wanted something casual.


Have you ever sewn with a burnout jersey? Offhand I can't remember doing so previously, but it was a fun change!

Update July 2017: This post contains affiliate links. Text of the original post remains the same!

5 comments:

  1. Absolutely adorable from every angle., and I agree with your decision to do all black binding. You have inspired me to try this pattern, even though I have more patterns in my stash now, than I will ever use!

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    Replies
    1. This is a great pattern and a fast sew, plenty of time to squeeze it in! ;)

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  2. Nice job! I love stash busting. :-)

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  3. Yes, I just sewed a t-shirt out of a purple and green burnout knit on the weekend. My sewing machine handled it pretty good which is great because I love wearing burnout knits. Your T-shirt looks super stylish and easy to wear

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! It's definitely lightweight and breezy, perfect for summer.

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