Sometimes you need a nice quick to sew garment to cleanse your sewing palette so-to-speak to jumpstart to sewing mojo – and also to infuse your closet with some quick basics! The Santa Fe Top from Hey June Handmade was just that for me this weekend.
The Pattern
The Santa Fe Top is a tank or dolman sleeve top with a flowy bodice with a variety of different views. View A-C have an optional center front seam and Views D-F feature side inserts. Each style can be customized with either narrow tank top straps, a sleeveless top, or dolman sleeves with a cuff.
I say this every time that I make a Hey June pattern, but they are honestly the most bang for your buck out of any pattern company I’ve run into. You can make 6 different (and very different) looking tops based on this pattern. Plus you can hack it with the Union St Tee for an even different look.
The other huge benefit to Hey June Patterns are the extremely detailed instructions. For a simple knit swing top, there are 19 pages of instructions including pattern alterations, styling tips, tips for sewing with knits and printing instructions. She also includes a listing by view of what you need to print – which is a huge help. The Santa Fe PDF is 88 pages long but I only needed to print 15.
The Fabric
Everyone has been gushing about Raspberry Creek Fabrics and I finally placed a big order of a lot of knits and wovens and thought the Santa Fe was a perfect fit for one of the knits. I used one of their rayon spandex knits and it was the perfect fit for this top. While the particular fabric I used is now sold out, some similar options in other colorways include this Mauve Flora Rayon Spandex Knit and this Deep Blush Rayon Spandex Knit.
The Top
I chose to make view C, a dolman sleeve top with a cuff, without the center seam (because I’m lazy and I think sometimes patterns with a center seam don’t work well). To add a more decorative look on the cuff, I top stitched both the top and bottom of the sleeve cuff. I didn’t hem the garment because the rayon spandex knit was so drapey it looked nice unhemmed.
My favorite feature of the pattern was the knit binding. I had never finished a knit garment with knit binding – I usually either add a neckband or turn it under. Knit binding is something I’ve seen in a lot of ready to wear garments and I love how it worked on this pattern.
Santa Fe Top Summary:
Size Made: Small
View: View C without Center Front Seam
Fabric Used: Rayon Spandex Jersey from Raspberry Creek Fabrics [Sold Out] – Similar Here and Here
Notions Used: Schmetz Jersey Needles, Edge Stitch Foot
Ease of Construction: Came together really quickly – the knit binding was very new to me, but it wasn’t difficult!
Fit: Perfect fit!
Repeatable? Yes! I would like to try the Union St Mash Up and make a couple more of this view in solids as well for some end of summer/fall transition basics.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. See here for more details on affiliate links.
How much fabric did it take to make this shirt? I have an idea in my head for a drop shoulder dolman and this might be the perfect base!
I had a 2 yard cut and had about 1/3 of a yard left (ish). The fabric requirements for the garment call for 1.75 yards so I think that’s about accurate. http://cf.heyjunehandmade.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/SantaFeBackCover.jpg
Sounds like an awesome shirt!