Tessuti Athina Top hack # 1 (oops, not actually a hack)
I made an Athina Top with cotton voile from Spotlight & just loved it but ITS A DIRECTIONAL PRINT & I hadnt been told. I wore this all day long in the city & only noticed as I got undressed that evening that all the tigers were upside down. OH NO. I couldnt hack it so I…hacked it.
The Tigers are running UP my body. Cut the whole thing apart
I had a bit less that a meter of fabric left and by slicing everything up and adding stuff here & there I have….: the Adidas Tiger Athina. Yes, it took me by surprise, too.
Sometimes the simplest changes are complete changes. I had a roll of black & white stripe grosgrain ribbon, bought I dont know why, and once again, my Mother’s voice came to my mind to annoy me: “make every fault a fashion”. Annoying because shes right. And this ribbon was right there, waiting patiently in Stash.
I lost the sleeves entirely when I cut it apart so I used whatever fabric I had left & added some ribbon between the body and sleeve to increase it. (I wanted much longer sleeves than the original pattern)
I didn’t change the overlocker thread colour! White on a black ground! Terrible! Lazy! Fuck off!
I regret the stripey bias binding on the neckline. Originally I had a baby pink satin binding & it was perfect but it was all gone. A plain black wouldve been better, but I will sleep tonight nevertheless.
Not seen: new seam at CB because fabric shortage. However with a landscape as busy as this, a center back seam is nigh invisible.
I should note at this point that I had lengthened the whole thing to begin with, so it’s a longish tunic & I wanted to keep as much tunic length as I could, so having lost some to the restructuring (cutting off the shoulders & neckline), I added a ruffle at the back and a split hem, higher at the front. I think the high/low looks better with tunics, it adds perceived length which counteracts the loss of height between the top & bottom at front; trust me it works, long & slim rather than squat & compacted.
Simple changes & additions: insert a trim between body & sleeve, lengthen sleeve and body, split high/low hem plus ruffle at back.
Now a favourite top
Altogether its pretty quirky I suppose but when you begin with Tigers & Palm Trees, you cant chicken out. One must run with it.