B&W gym tank, Simplicity 9776-ish

Thanks for your comments about the red dress, I really enjoyed reading them.  (Rose, I enjoyed how you called it "Kyle Red".  I think red and turquoise (separately, not together) are my best colors and I need to sew with them more.)  I wore the dress again today and I really enjoyed wearing it.  Definitely want to make it again, but need to cut the armholes deeper for sure.  It's a little too tight under the arms.

Soooo....I'm on vacay this week.  Is there anything more glorious than a summer vacation???   On Saturday I made this tank as I wanted some new gym wear.  I made my first tank for the gym last summer after taking "More Knits", a PR online class, where a tiny little tank was sewn to teach us how to sew FOE.   I was hooked, but I had no other pieces of stretch lace at the time.  Since then I've bought a few pieces of stretch lace, ahem.  And I've worn that tank almost once a week for the past year!  The lace is looking a bit worn but I'll keep wearing it til it disintegrates.


For my new tank, both fabrics (stretch lace and white knit underlining) are from Stitched Fabrics, purchased during PR weekend Austin earlier this year.  The FOE is from Pacific Trimming, purchased during MPB Day this year.  Yes, items that have been in stash less than 4 months, yahoo!!!

Closeup shot of the black stretch lace with white knit underlining

I cut the tank on the cross grain, which was the stretchiest direction, and also allowed me to take advantage of the selvedge to use it as the bottom edge.


I wore it to 5pm boogietone today (basically 45 minutes of club, latin and other styles of dancing, you can choose the intensity but I usually go for it) and it held up well.  I feel like I could sew it a bit tighter for a closer fit, like it's slightly too loose, but I'll wear it a few more times before making that final determination.  My gym friend Sara, who continues to be a huge sewing cheerleader of mine, really loved it.



I also feel like it could be a bit lower on my chest, or maybe the tank should be shorter?  Something about the proportion doesn't seem quite right.  However, another one of my classmates asked me if I've lost weight (I haven't), so something must be right about this top.


I think I'm continually amazed at how slow I am at sewing.  I'm thinking "this will take me one hour" and I think it was almost 4 (includes everything from tracing the pattern onto swedish tracing paper so I could cut it single layer to serger rethreading to final press--yes, I pressed the seams of a stretch lace tank top and yes it made a difference!)



I basted it first  with a narrow zig zag on my sewing machine then serged the interior seams, then used the zig zag stitch on the FOE as I learned in the PR "More Knits" class.   There are no loving pictures of the inside of this tank as my serger really hacked it up; I have since figured out the correct settings (more on that in my next post about the next tank I made).


This picture is a riot.


I didn't get to plant any flowers this year, but I did manage to use a gift card from my friend Meg to buy two hibiscus plants from that famous nursery, Whole Foods.  Here is one of them, which bloomed with flowers that were sometimes orange and sometimes red.   The other one will bloom either tmw or Saturday and I'll get a picture of it as it's pink.

God-cat owner Christine wanted to know what's up with the soap in the pot.  It's Irish Spring and is initially quite fragrant--it deters the deer from eating the hibiscus which are delicious.  Deer don't like strong scents, or so says the internet, and it seems to work.

Be well!