Esther’s Rowan Tee

With the mustard leopard print jersey pointelle in January’s Mini Box Esther made a Megan Nielsen Rowan Tee.

I can’t believe how far I’ve come in my sewing journey. When I started sewing, like most people, I started with stable woven fabrics. I got used to the ease of pressing, cutting and handling stable woven fabrics. As I got more confident in my sewing, I started branching into more adventurous woven fabrics, however, I stayed clear from knit fabrics. 

I can’t believe it but my fear of knits went on for about two years. I don’t know what made me decide to face my fears. But I decided to feel fear and do it anyway. I used the Stretch book by Tilly Walnes to assist with my first adventure into the knit world. I haven’t looked back since. 

In the past when I’ve received the Mini Box with a woven fabric, I always took my time to think about what to make but because of the magical stretch of knits, there are a good number of garments that can be made with only 1m of fabric. 

I really love mustard and I’m hoping to increase the number of mustard garments in my wardrobe so getting this fabric was perfect. The fabric has a beautiful stretch and I thought it would be perfect for a top. 

I decided to make the Megan Nielsen Rowan Tee, it’s not my first time making this pattern so it was an easy make for me. For this pattern, I scooped the neckline by about 3cm and did the easy full bust adjustment that I use for knit bodices. I also made it shorter but I didn’t measure how much length I took out. As someone who wears high waist bottoms 99% of the time, I figure there’s no reason to make a top so long if I’m only going to tuck it in. 

I made most of this top on my overlocker, making it a very quick and easy make. Well, easy after threading my overlocker. Sometimes, I find the process of actually making a garment easier than threading my overlocker. 

The neckline finishes off with a band and for the life of me, I almost never get it right on this pattern. This time was no exception, I ended up stretching out the neckband so much while trying to attach it to the neck of the top. In the future, I will draft my own neckband piece or just fold the neck over and topstitch. 

This top was a very quick make and as is my usual custom, I didn’t hem the top at all. In the Stretch book, I learnt that knits don’t fray and so they don’t actually need to be hemmed. I also noticed that some ready to wear knit garments left unhemmed, since then, I have used this as an excuse for my laziness. To be honest, hemming is one of my least favourite parts of sewing so if I don’t have to do it, I’ll take that any day. I have been doing this for so many garments and it has never been an issue. Even when I finish the necklines by folding over, I just fold it over once, it’s not going to fray so no need to enclose the raw edge. 

I love knits for the instant gratification, I can make a top in about an hour and I quite enjoy the forgiving fi