Print/Solid Reversible Garments From Coordinated Effort By Jan Raley
I have admired the reversible garments I see in the travel catalogs for a long time. All of the beautiful prints and coordinating solids in Christine’s latest fabric collection spoke to me and I finally stopped just admiring and started sewing. But I needed to do a little planning first. When wearing the print side, I wanted some of the solid to show at all the hems. When wearing the solid side, I did not want the print to show. I wanted a reversible top, skirt and jacket. I used the Sleeveless Keyhole Top (without the keyhole) #1010, the Ruffle Skirt #1025 and the Hoodie (without the hood) #331. The fabrics I chose were Beach Glass 894 and black ITY 671. The top construction was pretty straight forward, but I wanted the print side to be 1” shorter than the solid at the hem. I did not attach the two pieces at the hem, but let them swing free from each other. Since it was possible that the print might move around and show the underside of the solid, I wanted the solid hem to look good on both sides, thus was born the Decorative Serged Hem. I also wanted the stitching line of the solid hem to be ‘hidden’ under the print, so that hem is ¼” deeper. My measurements were as follows:
(These same dimensions were used for the jacket hem.) ** It is important to remember that the serged hems result in the overall length being ½” shorter, so be sure to mark the hems ½” longer than the desired length. For the skirt, I constructed the solid side as described in the pattern but I joined the ruffle side seams with a French seam for a clean finish on both sides. For the print, I cut the flounce 1” shorter than the pattern. I constructed both skirts separately, serged together at the top with right sides together and added elastic. See the Red Bamboo skirt and top for more detail on the elastic waist application.
The jacket started life as the Hoodie from Travel Trio Two #331. I eliminated the hood and made a deep V. I chose a point 8” down from the original neckline and joined that point to the neckline curve near the shoulder. I cut the solid sleeves an additional 2” longer.
I constructed the solid and print jackets separately. Then I serged the two, RS together, along the neckline edge and reinforced that seam with a 3/8” strip of knit lining cut slightly off grain from the lengthwise grain. At the sleeve hems, I wanted the black to wrap around to the print side by 1”. I determined the desired finished length of my sleeves. In order to achieve the 1” wrap, I cut the solid sleeve 1 5/8” longer than the finished length. The print sleeve is cut 3/8” shorter than the finished length. Then I serged the sleeve hems together following the pattern instructions. Next, I decided on the overall length of the jacket and hemmed both sides to achieve a 1” difference. Use the same hem measurements as the Keyhole Top. Finish the jacket by serging the center front edges, RS together and add a closure. |
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