Toni Top: Sewing Instructions
As with all knits and stretch fabrics, a serger/overlock will make your life easier. If you don’t have one, don’t despair. You don’t really need one. All serged seams on Toni can also be sewn with a short, narrow zigzag stitch (~2 mm wide) on a standard sewing machine.
For the topstitching steps, a coverstitch works best, but if you don’t have a coverstitch, a twin needle will also give good results. Of course, you can also use a zigzag stitch.
Step 0: Prepare the fabric
Cut out the parts including seam allowance and transfer markings and notches to the fabric. Note that there are two different kinds of notches. You probably want to use a different notch shape or a different pen/chalk color for ×-notches.
Step 1: Prepare the front part
If your pattern needs to do a larger front bust adjustment, your design may include a bust dart at the side seam of the front part. Sewing the dart is optional, the end of this paragraph contains some alternatives.
If your pattern contains no dart, which will be the case for most people, skip to step 2.
Sewing the dart
If the pattern was drafted with darts, fold your front part along the center line of the dart.
Sew using an elastic stitch along the dart line from the side seam towards the bust. Near the dart tip, make sure to stitch as parallel to the fold line as possible while still stitching over the folded edge.
If not using a serger, cut away any unnecessary fabric from the dart and finish raw edges.
Repeat this for both sides.
Alternatives
If you want to skip the dart, you could gather or pleat the fabric instead to match the side seam lengths.
Alternatively, if you want to color block your shirt, you could move the dart to where you put a color seam anyway.
Step 2: Sew the shoulder seams
Match up the front and back parts along the edges between the neck and the armholes and matching raw edges.
Sew using an elastic stitch. Repeat for both sides.
Skip this step if you’re creating a raglan top, in that case you’ll be sewing the sleeves to the front and back separately.
Step 3: Sew the sleeves
If your design has a separate sleeve part, pin the sleeve part to the front and back body parts, , matching notches and raw edges.
The hem of the sleeve points towards the neck opening.
Note that the sleeve part is not symmetrical. The ×-notch of the sleeve goes to the back part. The round notch attaches to the front part.
Sew with an elastic stitch. Repeat for both sleeves.
If your design doesn’t have a sleeve part, skip to the next step.
Step 4: Sew the side seams
Good sides together, pin the side seams and the bottoms of the sleeves (if present) together.
With the front part on top, sew using an elastic stitch. Repeat for both sides.
Step 5: Create the hem
Fold over the hem allowance to the inside and topstitch in place using an elastic stitch.
Step 6: Finish the neck
This is explained in more detail in the Teagan instructions and on this page.
Turn the main body piece right side out. Place the knit binding piece on the back of the neck, matching the raw edge of the neck opening. The solid line on the pattern (where the seam allowance ends) should be exactly at the center back of the garment.
Sew the neck binding to the main body piece. The distance of the stitch to the raw edge is the width of the neck band divided by four. This is probably not equal to the standard seam allowance! For example, if your knit band is 6 cm wide, sew 1.5 cm from the edge.
Place your presser foot 3 cm along the knit binding, so a 3 cm tail will be left unstitched. This will help us join the ends of the binding later.
Stop sewing 3 cm before the end, leaving a tail like we did at the beginning.
Sew the tails to close the loop, making sure the neck binding is stretched evenly.
Then sew down the remaining, unstitched length of the neck binding, keeping the same distance as before.
Fold the neck binding upwards and to the inside of the top. This will create a fold at the stitch line you just created, and another one at the original raw edge from the front and back parts.
Topstitch the neck binding in place from the outside. The inside edge can be left raw if you’re using knit fabric. Trim loose fabric from the inside to reduce bulk.
Step 7: Finish the armholes
Finish the arm openings the same way you finished the neckline (for sleeveless designs) or the hem (for designs with sleeves).
Step 8: Enjoy
Congratulations, enjoy your top!