Dolman Top, Vogue 8952, Serged

You read that right, I now have a serger.  It is a starter model, the same brand as my sewing machine.  It came threaded.  That is a real game changer, making it possible to start playing with it right out of the box, seeing how it meets my needs. One last cool-weather project was next up, a knit top.  Since it is dolman sleeved, meaning the sleeve and body cut as one, it required only 4 seams.  With no sleeves to set in, it was a good project for a first time serging.  

The first step was to prepare my sewing machine for the hemming, the only task it actually had to do.  With a stretch twin needle, a walking foot, and the tension and foot pressure both set to three, the test looked good.  This is a thick pointelle knit that is prone to tunneling with a twin needle.   There was 1.8 yards left at the end of the bolt, meaning I got both 30% off the nearly 2 yard piece and a further reduction on the fraction of a yard for a total of nearly $20.  (The fabric was $20 per yard originally--pretty expensive for JoAnn's.)  However, it is a soft cotton knit in a great spring color and thus worth the price.  

The layout for cutting was tricky.  The combination of the dolman-sleeved pattern, which has the body and sleeve as one large piece, and the fabric, with an obvious textured stripe to match, left only scraps.  They are large scraps, but are so oddly shaped that they may not be useful.  This was definitely not a zero waste project.

After serging the front and back seams, I became cautious and serged the shoulder and side seams with a smaller seam allowance to allow for resewing or reserging.  This initial construction resulted in a neckline that was too wide and low.  Adjustments included taking in about an inch in the front seam at the neck and the same at the shoulders, adding seam tape made from selvedge at the shoulders, and recutting the sides and hem to reduce the flare and length of the back skirt.  After serging all these adjustments, the bottom and sleeves were hemmed on my sewing machine.  

Since the neckline was still low, wide and loose, I opted to add a neckband by sewing it on the machine with a knit zigzag stitch and hand sewing it to the wrong side.  Honestly, I had it set up to attach the neckband on the serger, had it under the presser foot ready to go, and decided against it.   Since there is a back seam, there would have been seven layers of the thick knit fabric at that point.  That would have been way too much fabric to pass under the presser foot.  In a thinner fabric with no back neck seam, serging the neckband on would work.

Now that this top is completed, the pattern's fate is uncertain.  It looks good from the front, but even in a smaller size the back skirt would be too much.  It doesn't flare out as much as it first did before my modifications, and it is about six inches shorter overall than it would be for the size medium.  Still, there is a lot of excess fabric in the back.  

The drape is nice, but it is a bit more than I need.  The dolman sleeves present other issues.  They eat fabric and are bulky under the arms.  But now that it is completed, it has made me realize that I have a couple of printed skirts that look good with it, not to mention the usual blue jeans and maybe my new black pants.  Now that I have that serger going, here comes the rest of my Spring green wardrobe.