Named’s Inari in 2 ways

Hello! My name is Adeline and I blog at www.adesays.com. Today, I am going to share about my Named’s Inari in the Crop Tee version and the Tee Dress version.

I have been quite conservative in using commercial and indie patterns and have preferred to draft my own for I was afraid of fitting issues. I supposed all I needed was some motivation to start my engine rolling. So, I decided to jump into the deep end to challenge myself this Indie Pattern Month.

I chose the Inari Crop Tee pattern from Named because I’ve seen so many beautiful versions of it on social media. And what more, I’m all hands up for shift dresses and the Inari Tee dress looks like a funky twist to it.

This was a fairly easy and quick sew that any beginners like me can tackle. I did it over 4 weeknights after tucking my toddler to bed. It is gratifying after a long and busy day. In terms of my fabric choices, I made my Inari Crop Top in Cotton + Steel’s Macrame collection in this print called Braidy Mango. It’s 100% cotton, light weight and very smooth to touch. Afterall, what can go wrong with cotton? As for the Inari Tee dress, I was slightly more ambitious and used Nani Iro’s Birds eye collection in a double gauze fabric. I have been using double gauzes when sewing for my little one but have never used it for grown up pieces. It was slightly scary at first because the material stretches and I was afraid my seams wouldn’t match up. It also frays quite a fair bit so I found it very useful to have serged all the seams on my pieces before stitching them up.

At first I had a little trouble understanding the instructions for the arm bands, but after breaking it down and fiddling it for abit, this has been no problem at all. The larger issue I had was the neckband. Instead of using a facing I wanted to try the neckband option but my neckband piece just wouldn’t match up with the actual neckline. So I modified it slightly but measuring the actual neckline and cutting the neckband with that measurements.

Overall, I am really pleased with my make! What I thought was daunting (i.e. the fit of the finished garment) when using an indie pattern was made inconsequential. I’ve had a lack of casual garments in my handmade wardrobe recently and these 2 definitely fit right in as I am sure to have plenty of mileage out from them.

I’m definitely going to make a few more of these in different prints or different fabrics. And will certainly try the facing options for the neckline in my next attempt.