First make for 2025
Ganni Tie Top Dupe
Whilst I had planned on taking a break over Christmas from ‘work’, I got bitten by the clothes making bug. I don’t have free to air television and mostly watch home renovation shows on YouTube in my spare time, so was thrilled when I stumbled upon Sydney Grahams channel where I went down the rabbit hole of watching her make clothes.
My dearest friend Mardi of Simply Mardi has long inspired me to get back into making clothes again too, as she has been busily stitching away making gorgeous clothes for herself for quite a while now. I have loved all that she has shared but have been hesitant to dabble in making clothes for myself again as I honestly don’t enjoy trying to make them ‘fit’ a body, hence another reason why I love making quilts.
I was very drawn to this tutorial by Sydney where she shares a dupe of one her patterns, making a version of a Ganni top. Now, I confess I haven’t heard of Ganni tops before but I have seen versions of these tops in stores and just haven’t known what they were called. So I bit the bullet on Friday and purchased this pattern from Sydney. It was quite the task crawling around on the floor putting this pattern together, and I really did feel every bit my age when I tried to stand up LOL.. None the less, I enjoyed following someone else’s steps and putting this pattern together.
I decided to use a vintage sheet I had at home to make a toile of the pattern first, to check the fit and also to see how I liked making clothes again before I purchased any new fabrics. I stitched away until late into the night, only stopping because I ‘had to’, knowing that sleep was also important. I was up bright and early the next day, and straight back into it.
I managed to find just enough elastic at home to finish the sleeves and my first (in many years) piece of clothing was finished. I confess, I really quite enjoyed it and having already decided that I wasn’t purchasing any new clothes in 2025, this was also a great way to ‘feed’ my love of fashion and that new outfit feeling.
I do feel that the size I chose was a little small across my shoulders so I spent a few more hours on the floor making a new pattern in a larger size. I plan to visit Spotlight this week after work one day and see what I can find to have another play with. I am most definitely not ever planning on making patterns for clothes, this is just a little bit of ‘for fun’ stitching that I hope to dabble in a little this year. It’s fun!
And for those who might have noticed a little something colourful in the background of one of the above images, never fear, I am also working on a new quilting project as well. More on that later.
Tell me, what’s your first project for 2025? I’d love to hear.
