Final Pattern Notes
Size: I picked a size 5 for the sleeves and upper top and a size 6 for the waist/hips.

Length: This top was the first version that I’ve made of the long sleeved top. I lengthed the sleeve pattern by 0.25” (keeping in mind that I did not sew traditional folded hems).
Sleeve seams: For the top shoulder seams, I sewed these seams flat before I sewed up the under arm seams. The underarm and side seams however were a little more challenging to sew flat.

For the side seams in the body, I was able to sew these seams flat from the underarm to the bottom hems.
For the sleeves, I started at the underarm and sewed the side seams flat on each side to about halfway down the sleeve (note the thread tails in the photo below for where I stopped sewing on the sewing machine).

The under arms were more challenging because when you hit a certain place in the tube of the sleeve, the circumference was too challenging to sew on the machine. After stopping on the sewing machine, I hand sewed the rest of the underarm seams flat.

One negative to hand sewing is that you could potentially see the thread as you are sewing with it (and I was wanting to keep it hidden for the reversible option). That is one benefit to the machine sewing, with thread on the top and the bottom of the seam you can use two different colored threads, to hide them. I decided to use gray thread for the hand sewing in the under arm and I hid the thread underneath the serged seam. That way the little tack of stitches that you see on the gray side of the fabric, this thread is visible and blends in. Hiding this thread underneath the serged seam then on the black side of the fabric helps so that you don’t see the gray thread.
In areas that I had thread tails (coverstitched hems, hand sewing, etc.) I carefully hid the tails within the seams with a hand sewing needle. These steps took a little more time then normal, but I loved the idea of keeping this garment seamless and fully reversible.

One area that I did not execute well are the back seams of the neckband. I serged the edges of the neckband tube seams and then sewed them flat before applying the neckbands onto the shirt.

I aligned these two back seams together but I realized later that I should have staggered these two seams. The result (with aligning the two back seams) was the area became too bulky and was too challenging to sew with a coverstitch machine.

A way that I worked around this issue was to start the coverstitch seam after the back seam. Coming around the neckline, I stopped this seam before the back seam. The result had this back seam area left open. I then hand stitched the open, two back seams together so that they would remain flat (with a mattress stitch).

I then hid the tails of the coverstitched threads from the neckband in between the sandwiched neckband seams. I had three sets of tail ends that I pulled in between the seam and closely trimmed these threads in between the seam (to hide them).

To be continued…..

#minervamakes #minervamakers #isew #memade #memades #sewing #sewist #sewists #sewinginspo #sewinginspiration #sew #sewcialist #sewingproject #sewingprojects #sewingideas #sewingprojectideas #sewingpatterninspo #lovesewing #ilovesewing #sewsewsew #sewersgonnasew #makersgonnamake #sewaholic #sewaholics #shareyoursewing #sewinglove #handmadewardrobe #handemadeclothes #isewmyclothes #diyclothes #dressmaking #fabricinspo #seamstress #memadeeveryday #imakemyclothes #imakemyownclothes #fashion #fashioninspo #memadewardrobe #memadefashion #diyfashion #diywardrobe #fashionsewing #sewingtops #ladymcelroyfabrics #sewingwithponteroma #ponteromasewingprojects #reversibleponteroma #indiepatterns #indiesewingpatterns #tillyandthebuttonspatterns #tillyandthebuttonsagnestop #agnestop #patternhack #patternhacking