Gardner Top by Gertie

The holidays call for fancy fabrics and sequins. Don't you agree? There's just something fun about wearing sparkle during the festive month of December, isn't there? Add soft velvet and, I'm in! If sewing velvet scares you, read this post. I share my sewing machine and tips for tackling tricky fabric.
These Gardner tops fulfilled my fancy holiday fabric needs. The fabric was originally for vintage-style turbans. I've wanted to make velvet ones for quite some time. I only had 1 yard of each and was lucky that the one yard worked out. Whew! I changed direction at some point and decided to make Gardner tops instead. The matching sequin fabric went with the red one, and the sheer floral went with the green one. 

As usual, I don't go into depth with Gertie's Patreon patterns because I value her as a creator. However, I like to share tips and photos that show you my process along the way. If you're interested in this pattern, join her Patreon membership. She shares new patterns each month and so much more! 
I made one Gardner top following the exact directions and another collar-hacked version. This post is full of photos. Let's go!

Red Gardner Top (Original Pattern Version)

Red Garner Top

Start your top by tracing the darts onto the front. I prefer old-school wax paper and a tracing wheel system for this part.

Dart legs should look like this.

Staystitch front, clip into seam at center.

Staystitch the front and back necklines. Sewing from the shoulder towards the center prevents the neckline from stretching out. Never skip this step.

After you sew up the darts, cut them open. If sewing your top with velvet, don't press the seam open.

Cut dart open.

The sheer fabric is full of glitter, sequins, and all the sparkles. Perfect for holiday festivities.

Yay, no puckers!

If you go slow while sewing and make sure your seams are clipped, you shouldn't get any puckers in the V-shaped front. If you do get puckers, unpick that section and re-sew.


Sew up the back sheer keyhole area. Use thread that blends in with your fabric or skin tone.

Attaching the back sheer piece onto the back bodice went smoothly. It felt easier to sew than the front. But, follow the same process.

Wah-la! I love how the sequin fabric looks with this red velvet. So festive and fun. Don't you agree?

Make sure you top stitch to keep all the layers flattened on the front and back. 

The Collar

The collar was easy to sew, but it was tricky with velvet. I used sew-in interfacing that worked nicely. It went in smoothly, but I had a hiccup when I made the green top. You'll see below how I went in another direction with it. 

I did a few hand stitches to keep the collar together. All in all, it worked, but I wouldn’t want to sew another velvet collar in the future.

The sleeves and hem were easy to finish. I love this pattern and see many more Gardner Tops in my future.

All that's left is to sew on the hook and eye at the keyhole. 

I love the fit. I could have gone down a size, but I didn't want it to be too tight. This was a wearable muslin, and you never know until you make it. I love it despite the semi-itchy sequin fabric. Haha

I wore the red one to ring in the New Year. It had just enough sparkle to make me me feel festive.

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Green Velvet Top (Hacked Collar Version)

I didn't intend this Gardner top to be different, but I tried to fuse interfacing strips on the collar, and it didn't work in the end. So, after ripping out the collar, I ended up with a collar band and button. I wanted to show up in case you had a collar issue or just wanted to do a collar band instead.

I traced both tops with my favorite chalk pen by Clover. 

Cut both tops with my rotary cutter and mat. This keeps the velvet from stretching out. 

Green Velvet Gardner

I only had 1/2 yard of the sheer fabric, so I had to change the direction of the print to fit this top. The front has the vines running horizontally while the back is going vertically. Nobody will notice unless I point it out. I wanted to show you just in case you run into this issue, too. ;)

Collar Band Hack

I shared on Instagram my collar flub but didn't take any photos with my camera. So, instead, you're only seeing the band option.

​I measured around the collar opening and cut a strip that same length plus 1" by 3" wide. 

I folded the raw short edge under, pinned the long raw edge to the sheer fabric, and sewed with a 1/4" seam allowance. 

Fold the other long edge over and under, then pin and stitch on top. Stitch from one end to the next, making sure to close up the folded side. I stuck a small hair elastic in one end, for the button loop. 

Hem the sleeves and bottom hem using a zigzag stitch after turning up once. 

I picked the sparkliest button I had in my big button jar. I wish it was gold but, it works well enough. 

What do you think? Do you like the original collar version or the hacked band version better? 

I can't decide if I love the sparkles and red velvet or the florals and green velvet better. They're both so beautiful and fun!

Don't you just love this top? My favorite part is how the sheer sits on the shoulder. It's flawless and so feminine. It's also fancy and comfy to wear. I love how quickly the band came together, where as the collar took a little more time. But, I do love both versions.
Thanks for hanging with me today. Go join her Pattern and get this beautiful pattern along with tons of others. 

Happy sewing and happier pattern hacking,
​Annette

Charm Patterns Rita Blouse

Hope your week has gone swimmingly! This vintage-style blouse pattern is made by the queen of vintage sewing herself, Gertie. Her books, patterns, blog, and Patreon are all things made for the retro-loving sewist! If you don't know who she is, click here. You'll fall in love instantly, I promise.

Real quick, here's a little back story. I learned how to sew right after my oldest son was born. Baby blankets, curtains, pillows, I made all the things. I took a group class upstairs in a small vacuum and sewing shop. I was the only one who showed up, so I was lucky enough to receive a one-on-one class from the sweetest lady. Fast forward a few years and I was making bags, more pillows, PJs, and Halloween costumes for my kids. You know, regular mom sewing stuff.

While channel surfing, I stumbled upon our local PBS station and saw some sewing shows! I DVR'd them all!! I would wake up early Saturday morning and watch as many as I could until my kids woke up. Super sewing nerd alert! LOL!! Nancy Zieman was amongst a few others I got to know through television. Then, one day this gal with pink hair had a short segment. I can't remember what she made, but I was in love. She was young, had pink hair, and sewed!!?? Whaaatt!?? 

Got out my laptop and Googled her name and found she had a blog and youtube channel. I soon realized that I could sew things for myself.  Making things for my kids and gifts for friends and family was all I ever did. Gretchen Hirsch a.k.a. Gertie opened my eyes and my spirit. The rest is history.

All of her books, and a lot of her fabric and patterns adorn my shelves. Saying I LOVE her, is an understatement. Not in a creepy stalker way though, I promise. 

As parents and adults, we sometimes lose ourselves. We get caught up in day-to-day life and just join everyone else in robot mode. Once I started making things for myself, I enjoyed life and found myself again. If you feel like you're in a funk, I encourage you to find someone whom you find inspiration from. Hopefully, it radiates beauty and positivity like she does, for me.

So, without further ado, here's the step-by-step process of making her Rita Blouse. Click that link to take you to her website to grab this pattern. 

Materials:

• Charm pattern: Rita Blouse

• Pattern paper for transferring the pattern (optional)

• Ruler, scissors or rotary cutter, pattern weights, pencil /pen, iron

• Sewing machine and all that jazz

• Cute fabric and matching thread 

• Invisible zipper and invisible zipper foot

• Lightweight stabilizer

• A trusty seam ripper, just in case

Instructions

Open up the pattern envelope. Lightly iron the pattern to get out the wrinkles with a dry iron on a low setting.

Decide which size you're going to cut based on your measurements. The envelope put me at a size 10, but I chose to make a size 8 using the DD cup. It fit perfectly! This top is supposed to have a vintage fit, so I took a gamble. It's meant to fit closer to the body.

Choose your size(s) on the pattern based on your measurements.

Cut out the pattern or transfer it to pattern paper. You can trace it onto freezer paper. Freezer paper is an easy and frugal option. Win-win! Big box and grocery stores carry it.

Follow the pattern instructions for laying out your fabric on the grain. I had some Gertie fabric in my stash, so I used her pretty strawberry print for my Rita blouse.

UPDATE: I used the rest of the fabric I had for my 1940s shorts.

Time to cut out the pieces. Use your rotary cutter or scissors. Mark each piece with chalk or an air/water soluble marker. This blouse has quite a few pieces, it helps to mark them with their number.

*Also make sure you mirror the pieces so you don't end up with left-sided pieces only. Face-palm! :/

Pin the fabric pieces to the pattern pieces until you get going. This keeps everything separate and organized.

Finish the edges however you prefer. Serge or use a zigzag stitch. You can also use pinking shears. Gertie says to sew from the bottom to the top. 

Time to assemble it all together. 

Follow her pattern instructions and double-check that you’re matching each piece correctly. It went smoother than anticipated. 

Be sure to match the notches, these pieces are cut with a curve, and you don't want to have to get out the seam ripper. 

Onward!

Stitch the front to the back at the right side seam, right sides together. Again, starting from the bottom and sewing upwards to avoid distortion.

Press those lovely seams open. Don't skip this step. Pressing is what takes your garment from looking homemade to handmade. There's a difference. ;) Your iron is your friend when sewing.

Your lower portion should look something like above. I left my seam allowances untrimmed. If I gain a few, I can easily let out the side seams and still wear the blouse.

Sew the gathering stitches.

Now it's time to make the gathers for the bust pieces.

Increase the stitch length to 5. Then, sew 2 rows of parallel stitching, making sure to leave long thread tails. Pull the bobbin thread and make the gathers even. Go slowly.

Sew the gathers between the dots. You'll do this for both the front and back bodice pieces. Here's an easy way to remember which is which: one line of gathers on the back. Two rows of gathers on the front because, well, you have 2... you know. ;)

Right sides together, sew both upper bodice pieces on the right side seam. Leave the left seam untouched.

It's starting to look like a shirt! Yaaay!

Stitch the top bodice piece to the lower bodice piece. Use all the pins if you need to.

Zipper time! It's like hammer time, but less fun. And no fancy gold pants here.

Cut and fuse a strip of stabilizer where the pattern piece is marked. This will help stabilize the zipper.

Add fusible to the seam where the zipper is going to go in.

I don't pin, I just hold it and unroll the zip as it gets fed under the foot. This takes both hands.

Gertie has a fabulous tutorial on her youtube channel for sewing these suckers. Other YouTubers have videos as well. Once you understand how it works, you’ll fall in love. I like how the zipper disappears into the seam.

Invisible zippers go in backwards and this one goes in upside down as well because it zips from the waist, up.

After the zipper is successfully in and you haven't set the shirt on fire. You'll need to finish sewing up the left side seam. Gertie recommends that you leave a thin gap and do not sew straight up to the zip seam. This is the only way I don't get puckers. Seems silly and bizarre, but it's genius and works like magical fairy dust! Cue blissful music. Yay for no puckers!! That's puckers, with a P. 

Time to get those sleeves put together. This is easy peasy. Sew up the short ends, right sides together. Press the seam open. 

Set the sleeves into the blouse matching the seams and notches, right sides together.

Stitch and trim seam allowances. Press the seam down. Make sure you pay attention to this. I sewed my sleeves on inside out first... Yeah, I'm special. 

We have sleeves! Yaaay!! Give yourself a pat on the back, you did it! It's all downhill from here. 

I think the most difficult part of this shirt is cutting out the correct pieces. Sounds silly, but I often forget to cut mirror pieces. 

Make the casing, it’s easiest to fold and press, fold, and press. And, clip as you go.

Make casings in the neckline and sleeves for your elastic. Watch out for seams when inserting the elastic via a safety pin, they tend to get thick. The pattern instructions have the elastic length measurements for the size you're sewing. However, the length was not long enough for me. I don't like tight armholes. I ended up ripping out the elastic and using a much longer length. I advise you to insert it, uncut and try it on first. You can add length or take away at this point. Just a heads up...

Use a safety pin to run the elastic through the casing. 

ZigZag stitch over the elastic ends.

After you have put the elastic through both arms and the neckline, try the blouse on. Adjust the elastic according to your own comfort level. I needed less in the neckline and more in the arms from what the pattern suggested. Once you've found your desired length, sew the elastic ends together with a zigzag stitch. Sew the casing closed. 

All that's left to do now is the hem. Go outside and do a cartwheel if you want! Or, just finish that hem and carry on with life like it's no big deal because you just made a top! 

This is my 90s pose. Doesn't it take ya back? LOL

Thanks for hanging out today! And thanks if you made it all the way to the end. This was a long one.

Did you find this blouse easy to make? Are you going to make 5 in every color? Yeah, me too!!

Hopefully, I covered everything in this post, but if you have questions, ask in the comments and I'll respond quickly. Check out Gertie, she’s the best.

XO,

Annette