Alabama Chanin Top Take Two

It has almost been year since my first foray into the wonderful world of Alabama Chanin. I wrote all about it here. This post will focus on the details pertaining to the new top.

My second time was a breeze because I already knew what I was doing. I didn't have to start from scratch as far as stencil was concerned because I reused the same stencil as the first time.

Ana's Garden stencil which I traced and cut last year.

This time I used a combination of black and camel lightweight (4.6 oz/linear yard) cotton jersey. The first time I used a medium weight (9.8 oz/linear yard). For summer, I prefer the former. 

The camel jersey was purchased from Alabama Chanin website during a 20% off sale. The black one was from Fabric.com and part of the Telio line of fabrics. Both were of the same quality but the latter was significantly cheaper. 

I used Createx Pearlized Fabric paint in Pearl Satin Gold for the stencil paint. I purchased it last year from Dick Blick. I only used half of the small 4 oz bottle and did not dilute it at all. 

This is what it looked like after spray painting. I did not stress out as much during the airbrushing process because I already knew that much of it would be cut out anyway. 

For the handsewing process, I used Coats Button & Craft thread in camel (shade no. 8230). I had two spools (one of which was partly used) of 50 yards each. 

Now the handstitching was a bit stressful because the threads were from my stash and were no longer available online or at my local fabric store in that particular shade. I had to save every bit of cut thread just in case. 

The camel jersey served as the backing fabric. 

I used featherstitch for the neck binding. 

Inside view of the neck binding. 

I cheated a bit and did not handsew the seams. As with the first time, I used my serger to assemble the top. 

I left the hems of the top and the sleeves unfinished. 

I used the cap sleeve option for this tee. 

 

I also altered the fit a bit because the first top I made felt a bit too body hugging for my taste. So I graded from XS to Medium at the hips and also shortened the top by a total of 3". 

I am happier with the fit of this second top. I can't wait to sew some more for summer!