Sewing my first garment: basic tank top

If you've been following me for a while, you've probably heard me saying that I want to learn how to sew, but it never happened. Earlier this year, I made some progress towards it by sewing a handful of pillows for my dolls, which helped me practice some hand stitching. But finally, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to go for it and make a basic t-shirt. 

My motivation to start sewing is not "This looks like a fun hobby", but rather "I need doll clothes and I don't like what Mattel is offering. Learning how to sew could solve that". I keep postponing sewing, probably because of my lack of confidence in my sewing skills (or simply lack of confidence, period). But I had to talk myself out of it, because the only way you can learn to do something is by actually doing it. It can go wrong, but I need to keep in mind that it is normal when you start something new. 

This post isn't meant to teach anyone how to sew, but rather me sharing my learning journey.  I know that some of my readers are very skilled sewers, so if anything they should be teaching me! I want to use this blog as some sort of "sewing journal", where I can keep track of my progress, and maybe that will motivate me to sew more. Also, that way I can get some feedback and tips from those who can actually sew on what I can improve for future projects.

The garment I'm sewing today is this basic tank top from a Barbie fashion pack. If you  read my blog quite often, you've probably seen my dolls wearing this countless times, as it is part of one of my favorite outfits. I've always wished I had more t-shirts like this in other colors, so I decided to start with this. I'm not sure if this is the best project for a beginner, but since my dolls often wear this under a jacket, that would hide the imperfections in case I don't do a stellar job. 

First step is making the pattern. I have 0 knowledge on how to make a pattern, but luckily April from Fashion Doll Stylist has a post showing how to make a pattern out of an existing garment without tearing it apart. The post (A trace of style) is quite old, from 2013, but ever since I found it I had been thinking about the already made garments I have that I would like to recreate. 

This t-shirt is made in one piece and doesn't have a seam on the shoulders. I assume this is to avoid having a lot of bulk there. Since it's going to be hard for me to get the pattern right in one piece, I'm going to make one piece for the front and two for the back. Hopefully, as I keep learning I'll manage to make it all in one piece. 

Following the instructions on April's post, I traced the silhouette of my garment on some paper. I'm using manila paper, which isn't as see through as the paper April used on her post, but I managed to get it right on the second try. Next time I will try a different paper though. 

I cut it out and made sure everything was right by comparing it to the original garment and trying it on my doll. 

Then, I draw it again on a piece of computer paper, so it will last longer in case I wanted to make multiple. I'm folding the paper in half and tracing just half of the pattern, to make sure it will be symmetrical. 

As my fabric, I'm going to use an old H&M t-shirt that doesn't fit me anymore. Carefully, I traced the pattern onto the fabric. I'm using a mechanical pencil because since I've moved home I haven't found any of my regular pencils. 

I cut it out leaving 0,5 cm of seam allowance. 

Now that everything is cut out, I have no idea in which order I have to sew everything. I checked out Atelier ni Shasha's Youtube channel to see if she had some tutorial that could help me. Much to my delight, she had a video on how to sew a tank top. Her pattern is slightly different from mine (the back of hers is just one piece), but I think it will help me. First, I sew the shoulders part

Then I sew the neckline.

And after that, I sew the armholes. I did such a sloppy job here.  In retrospect, I think I should have sewn the armholes first, as I think the straps ended up being too narrow. At this point, I thought I would have to scrap the whole thing at start over, but decided to keep trying. 

After the messy job I did on the armholes, it's time to sew the sides together. After this step, I'm feeling more confident that it might end up looking somewhat decent. 

Now it's time to hem the back part. On the original garment, one of the sides has no hem, but my fabric keeps rolling over, so I ended up hemming it.

Now it's time to sew the snap buttons. These are the smallest I managed to find and still look massive compared to my garment. I'm using this plastic ones because they're less bulky than the metallic ones. I'll try to find smaller ones for future projects, but so far these will do. 

Here's how the t-shirt looks on the doll. As you can see, the shoulders part is a bit bulky, and I also I feel like the shoulder straps are too long. It's not very well finished under the armpit area, but probably I'll be able to fix that. 

Let's try it with a jacket. Since most of the mistakes are in the shoulder and armhole area, the jacket perfectly covers them. On this photo, it looks fine to me. By the way, this jacket is also something that I want to recreate. 

I made a few mistakes, but I feel like I learned from them. First, the fabric that I used was quite stretchy and didn't work the best with the pattern. Funnily enough, I discarded another old t-shirt because the fabric was "too stretchy" and I thought that would give me problems. I have other t-shirts that seem to be less elastic, so hopefully those will work better with the pattern. 

The fabric rolling over can be a bit annoying, specially if it shows up. Sharon, from Sharon in Spain suggested that I could use some fabric glue next time I work with this type of t-shirt fabric and then stitch it on top. This will help with that and other deformations of this type of fabric. 

Despite the mistakes, I'm happy with what I have done, mostly because I finally got to sew some doll clothes after so many years of pledging to do so. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself, as this is my very first project. I hope that, as I keep practicing, I will get better at it. 

I have modest expectations about what I want to achieve in my sewing journey. I'm not trying to become the most skilled seamstress and make the most detailed clothing, but rather to be able to make simple garments to expand my dolls' wardrobe. I do have a few ideas for future sewing projects, but I still haven't decided on what should I do next.

Thank you so much for taking your time to read this longer than expected post. During the time I was making this t-shirt I couldn't stop thinking about a brand-new color I have that I want to use for a wainscot, so chances are that soon you'll be seeing that over here. 

I hope you're all doing well, and I'll see you soon. Have a nice weekend!

Monster Crafts