Activewear Top

I recently had the opportunity to sew with activewear jersey, something I've never done before and a fabric that I was excited to try out! The fabric in question is this one from Minerva Crafts. I wasn't sure what to expect when the fabric arrived but it was perfect! I chose the blue colour way and it's such lovely colour. For my first venture into sewing activewear I decided to stick to a simple pattern as I wasn't sure what the fabric would be like to sew with. I also wanted to make something for my Dad and use the opportunity to get a head start on some Christmas sewing! 

The pattern I used really could not have been easier and I would highly recommend it for both a first jersey/activewear project and also a good pattern to use if you're sewing for someone else. It's the Oliver + S men's metro t-shirt which I've made once before but as a jumper. Whenever I use the same pattern several times I'm always amazed at how different each version looks, it's amazing how a different fabric or sleeve length can change the look of a garment completely! The other benefit to re-using this pattern is that I know it fits my Dad well, I find that when sewing for others especially it's best to find a couple of patterns that they like and that fit them well. This means that you can sew them multifple times without having to worry about fitting issues each time.

Despite being initially nervous about sewing with activewear jersey I was surprised and also pleased at how easy it was to sew, certainly no different to sewing regular jersey and much easier than sewing with a really stretchy jersey. I'm sure stretchier activewear fabrics exist but I found that this one was the perfect balance between being stretchy enough to work for activewear but not so stretchy that it was difficult to sew. The main difference is the feel of this fabric and it did feel quite strange to sew with at first as it isn't a texture I'm used to sewing with. The only difficulty was cutting the fabric as it tended to be quite slippy but again this wasn't really something that bothered me or something that couldn't be solved with a vast number of pins! 

I'm so pleased with this make. It was really fun to be able to experiment with a completely different type of fabric. My Dad was really pleased and hopefully he will get lots of wear out of it. Seeing as he has worn the jumper I made him last year quite a bit I'm sure this make will get quite a bit of wear too. I loved sewing this up on my overlocker (it was so fast!) and I also really like the contrast of the overlocking stitches on the inside. The only change I made to the pattern to switch it to activewear was to leave the neckline un-topsitched. I usually topsitch all of my neckbands but seeing as this top will be moved in more than normal tops I decided to leave the neckline unstitched as I expect the stitching would break. One of the joys of overlocking is how stretchy the stitching is, perfect for activewear!