Thrifty Thursday/The Free Tate Top Pattern

Last November, Jennifer from Workroom Social debuted her first pattern. It's an easy to wear, racer back tank. I knew that the pattern was coming out, as I saw a post she had done back in September where she announced that it would be coming soon. Once the pattern was out, I downloaded it and then it went on the back burner. 

 The back has a fairly deep racer back shaping.

I finally downloaded the pattern. Here's a schematic of the front and back. I ended up cutting the front on the center line and recycling the rest.

The back comes in 2 options.  One is a full back, the other has a center back and a side back, great for color blocking.

Since the top has sat on the back burner, I've had the opportunity to see tops made by others. Once I downloaded the pattern and took a look at it, I felt that I needed to raise the underarm seam and fill in the armhole. Below is the front pattern. I raised the armhole 1" and then blended my line back into the armhole.

The back was a little more dramatic. Once again, I raised the underarm 1" and blended my line back into the armhole, but as you can see, the back is a little more filled in. Always keep in mind that you can cut away if it's a little too much, but it's a lot more difficult, or impossible, to add back. So, I added the extra and felt that if it was too much, I would just cut away the excess.

My finished top. As it turned out, what I added was perfect. 

 The back does not have the deep racer back, but I really like how it works on my body. It's just enough of a cut away to look pretty, but not  so much that I feel exposed.

Another change that I made was to the center back opening. The pattern calls for a center back zipper. I don't care for a center back zipper in my tops, so I left about a 6" opening,

To finish the opening, I simply turned under my seam allowance and stitched it all the way to the neckline. Once the seam allowance had been turned and stitched, I came back and stitched down the seam allowance in the opening that I had left.

The back is finished and I will add a thread loop and a small button to keep the neckline closed.

Pictures of me in the top will come a little later today.

In the meantime, if you would like an easy to wear racer back tank for the summer, you can find the free pattern HERE.