Janine at The Sewing Revival, the pattern company based in New Zealand, is gradually creating a growing collection of stylish patterns and there is something very appealing in their deceptive simplicity I think. I’ve made a few versions of several of them now, including the Sidewinder pants, the Bellbird top and the Heron dress.
When Janine kindly offered me my choice of the range to choose from I picked one of the more recent releases, the Fantail top. At first glance it appears to be a simple raglan-sleeved top but along with the high/low hemline and elasticated front hem it offers variations of scooped, ribbing or V neck, elasticated or ribbing cuffs, and the back hem can be finished with ribbing too.
I had a rummage in my stash for some suitable fabric, ideally something with a bit of drape works best so soft viscose, crepe, georgette or chiffon if you fancy a challenge, cotton lawn, wool challis or fine linen would all work very well. Light- or medium- weight jersey will make it into a very chic sweater. I’ve no idea where my piece of navy fabric came from, probably I was given it by an elderly lady because it had a little ticket pinned to one corner saying it was 1 1/2 yards x 54” wide and cost 90p! It certainly smelt a little bit musty so the first thing I did was give it a quick hand-wash, it turns out that the colour ran quite a bit and I was left with blue hands for several hours afterwards!!
The patterns are sold in size bands which each contain 4 sizes (there is some overlap between the brackets) and each band is layered which gives you the option to print only the sizes you want so I printed UK 10 and 12 because, having lost some weight recently, I wasn’t sure which size would be best. In the end I cut a UK12 and it looks fine I think, it’s a roomy style so I could possibly go down a size but as I’m one of life’s ‘fluctuaters’ where weight is concerned maybe I won’t.
I like the instructions on Sewing Revival patterns because they are well explained and illustrated with photographs. If you’re an experienced sewer like me then you won’t necessarily need to follow them closely all the time but I do keep half an eye on them so that I don’t miss a step or construct in the wrong order which might have repercussions later on.
I made the scoop-neck version with elasticated cuffs which is probably the most straightforward variant, the round neck is just the right amount in my view, not too wide, not too deep. Raglan sleeves are super-quick to construct, I usually sew the neck facing on after the shoulder seams and before sewing the under arm seams.
The front and back hems are very different lengths and finished differently so don’t rush through these elements. I ignored the suggested bias-binding finish on the back hem and used one of my favourite techniques of a pin-hem instead ( I wrote instructions for this last year in this blog post on hems )
The USP of this top is the deep partially-elasticated front hem. It looks great but it’s really not difficult to achieve. There are suggested lengths to cut your elastic for each size although you could use a shorter piece over the same length if you want to pull the front in a bit more. Or you could also use a narrower elastic but the pattern is cut for wide width like this so you may have to make an alteration to the hem depth accordingly for the channel to work.
As I said, this is a simple top with eye-catching details, it’s probably a half-day project if you’re got everything you need when you start.
I’ve already got some fabric lined up for another Fantail hopefully very soon, a nice piece of soft viscose from Sew Me Something and ribbing given to me by my friend Kate which by sheer good fortune coordinates perfectly! There’s lots of possible variety with the Fantail, short sleeves is another for example. Incidentally, there is also a slightly different sleeveless version of the Fantail available too.
Until next time, Happy sewing
Sue
Susan Young Sewing 
3 thoughts on “Fantail Top from The Sewing Revival”