I found this adorable llama cotton and purchased 2 yards with the intention of making another gathered skirt like the space skirt from last spring. And then I noticed the extra wide bias tape that matched some of the llamas and thought it was too good to pass up. I considered sticking with my original plan of the gathered skirt and using the bias tape for the waistband. Then I got thinking about how much bias tape is known - and useful - for its stretch factor, and how that just wouldn't be useful for a waistband. Sure, I could add some interfacing to try and stabilize it, but I'd be fighting an uphill battle.
After I got home and was looking through my patterns once more I got to thinking that I'd really like this more as a top instead of a skirt for two reasons. The bias tape could be used as accent trim rather than fighting its natural inclination to stretch, and the fabric would easily pair with jeans whereas finding a matching shirt if this were a skirt could be tricky. Granted that meant that the 8in zipper I purchased was not going to work at all, but fortunately I had a nice long invisible zip in grey hanging out in my stash that could easily blend in with some of the other llamas.
I think that this was my fourth time using trusty pattern McCall's M6896. (Stretch black, Peacock, Navy dress, and now Llama top). For the navy version I had drafted tulip sleeves, and I figured that this was a good excuse to re-use those. I also replaced the neck facing with bias binding at the neckline and added a little extra width to the center front. I know, I know, an FBA would be better, but this was fast and did the trick. I also had to be very careful cutting because even through 2 yards was more than enough fabric to make a short-sleeved top, my iron leaked on the fabric and left a couple of brown stains that I wanted to cut around. They will probably come out in the wash, and I actually had to leave one in near the lower center back. I'd rather have a small stain at the lower back than the center front though!
After getting the fabric cut out I put in the invisible zipper. I know it sounds like a pain, but it's really important to make sure that you gently iron the zipper open before you sew it to the fabric so that you can stitch close enough to the zipper to actually make it "invisible" once you sew.
Next I sewed the front and back princess seams together, and then the side seams. Then some stay-stitching and the bias binding around the neck hole. Then I moved onto the sleeves. I sewed the under-arm sleeve, and then sewed the accent binding onto the sleeve edges. The binding was really wide and didn't fold nicely around the corners. It would've worked better with narrower binding, but they only had the wide tape when I was at the store. The wider tape also makes a bolder statement that is visible from a greater distance, and I appreciate that in a world of social distancing.
Attaching the sleeves at the shoulders was probably the most difficult part of this garment and required a bit of tearing out and re-stitching. The fabric kept getting pulled under in weird ways, but it came together with patience.
Finally I hemmed the shirt with a hemstitch and I was done. The hemming took almost 2 hours to get everything folded under twice, pinned in place, and stitched down, but I got there. I would've just topstitched it, but I couldn't find thread in my stash that matched well enough and the hem stitch is a bit more subtle. So here it is in all its glory. I finished this shirt in just 4 sittings.
Item: Llama Top
Material: Cotton
Pattern: McCall's M6896
Year: Pattern copyright 2014
Notions: Zipper, thread, bias tape
How historically accurate is it? n/a
Hours to complete: 8 1/4 hour
First worn: Work 5/29/2021
Total cost: Fabric (10)+Zipper (3)+thread (stash)+bias tape (2.50)=$15.50+tax