Jungle January and I made it just in time!

Technically speaking, it is still Jungle January here.  Hop on over to Pretty Grievances to see all the WILD garments that she has rounded up!  In the last few waking hours of the day I would like to show you my second Jungle January garment – something that I am very happy with… even if I got off to a bad start.  Let’s just say that I still haven’t learned the lesson:  Read the instructions first!

I have this pattern, Vogue V9107, which is not meant for knits, but who am I to follow the fabric recommendations!  (Surprisingly enough, this time it worked!)  I decided to make view A, the top.

I also have in my stash a lovely, soft, stretchy, comfortable Jersey knit, 96% cotton and 4% Lycra, my grey and black leopard, and a stable black ponte knit for contrast.  After I cut all my knit pieces out all the edges curled up… but I wouldn’t let stretchy fabric deter me!

Full steam ahead… I started by sewing together the black contrast pieces.  I sewed them together, thought I had done it incorrectly because my leopard print pieces didn’t seem to fit, unpicked the sewing in my black contrast pieces and then sewed them up differently, only to find out that it was sewn right the first time!  So I stopped to read the instructions (for the first time), did some more unpicking of seams and finally got it right!

I sewed the long seams on my leopard print pieces with a soft cotton/polyester hem tape to give the seams some sturdiness.

I trimmed off the excess.

Ironed the seams to press them flat.

 

I decided to do some top-stitching too, which was easy with the sturdy hem tape underneath, and I ended up with some pretty stable seams.  I used the same cotton/polyester tape to stabilize the hem.

After the initial set backs, I ended up with a quick and easy (if I would have read the instructions first) top.  Look at the crazy hem line on this thing!  Can you see that I rounded the corners?  On a woven fabric it would have been easy to have the corners end in points, but with this knit fabric rounding the corners definitely made things easier.

It wouldn’t be Jungle January without a real live animal… Here’s Shy Sophie!

Here’s Shy Sophie trying to scramble away!

The front view, without cat, for your examination…

I really, really want to say “Thank You!” to Pretty Grievances for hosting Jungle January!  It is always a treat to use a fabric that I would not ordinarily have looked at and also a treat to see what my fellow sewists come up with!

And with that, I think I have made it in under the deadline… it’s the final hours of Jungle January here!

Happy Sewing!