Olive Again

First attempt with Olive, from The Sewing Workshop

Olive, a pattern from The Sewing Workshop (TSW) has haunted me for 5 years. That's the last time I tried it out. It was too small and I gave it to my DD who probably waited a while and then donated it. Her style is subtle with a strong preference for neutral, light colors. This one was decidedly not understated.

So I graded up to M/L and tried it with this tissue knit. IMO, knits are cantankerous, unpredictable yet forgiving. I think it's my strong need to control things that gets me in trouble with knits. That, and my impatience.

Because I wanted to highlight the interesting twisted seams, I decided to insert a narrow strip of striped fabric into each vertical seam. That worked OK. As I was sewing the last vertical seam, I figured out what I should have done. That worked great.

What I should have done: Sew a 1 inch strip of striped jersey to one raw edge, right sides together. On this first pass, I could establish to final position of the strip with a outside width of 3/8 inch, allowing for a 5/8 seam allowance. Lastly I sewed the regular seam with the basting stitches on top. I stitched right on top of the basting line. Hope that makes sense.

The pattern calls for a zipper that is purely decorative, so I omitted it.

The fabric is a tissue-weight rayon jersey from House of Fabrics in Asheville NC. It did not roll and was fairly easy to cut out single layer, as was necessary with this fabric design, and also with the pattern design.

The sleeve has a vented detail.

Sewing was another matter. This tissue knit feels like I'm sewing jello onto air. I kept changing feet and adjusting stitch width until it was finally done. Hooray for done. I have decided that I need to stop buying these tissue weight knits. Too much woo-woo for me.

This one is entirely wearable and I won't be foisting it on DD.