Color Block Tee & Skirt
From Coordinated Effort
By Jan Raley
These teal and black pieces were inspired by a runway photo I’ve been saving for years. I used the Raglan Tee from Travel Trio Thee #226. The skirt is the Straight Skirt from Base Wear Two #1025. The fabrics are Teal Viscose and Black ITY.
I spent a while with pattern, paper and pen before I decided on the final widths of my bands. I ended up using a finished width of 1 ¾” for the bottom teal band and 4 ¼” for the black band.
I drew these design lines on the pattern after I decided on the finished length of the sleeves and skirt. I traced off new pattern pieces adding seam allowances. I wanted to eliminate hemming, so I doubled the lower band, making the hem edge a fold line.
I wanted the option to tweak the position of the bands on the final garments, so I used the following construction sequence:
I sewed the side seams of the bottom bands and folded in half with wrong sides together. Next I sewed the side seams of the black band. I sewed the teal band to the bottom of the black band. This allowed me to baste the black/teal band assembly to the lower edge of the upper skirt and check the position. Sure enough, I ended up tweaking this seam so I was glad I had basted.
The top is constructed following the pattern instructions except I treated the band construction just like I did on the skirt and basted the band assembly to the bottom of the sleeve to check for position.
