Hey everybody! My favorite part of making my own clothes is taking patterns already in my library and tweaking them to perfect the image you have in your head. For a couple weeks now, I just knew I wanted to make a Marina Tank with a curved hem. The idea evolved and I ended up with a Mesh Color-blocked Curved Hem Marina Tank (that’s quite the mouthful to say). The best part is I made this beauty mashing 2 ALD patterns. The Marina Tank for the main portion of the tank pattern and mashed the curved hem of the Dream Tee onto the bottom.
I use a projector and rotary cutter for sewing and normally don't trace patterns out anymore. Though for this project I did. First, I projected the Marina Tank and traced out the main portion of the tank as normal stopping where the bottom hem starts.
I then traced the curved hem of the Dream Tee onto the bottom of the Marina Tank. I did this by lining up the curved hem of the Dream Tee to where it fits between the fold line and the side seam. When fitting the curved hem between the side seam and the fold line you'll end up with about 1 1/2 inches of line drawn below your curved hem on the side seam line. On the fold line the curved hem should line up with the end of your traced line.
Since I was color blocking with mesh I wanted to make sure that the color block started under my bra line. To do this I used the shorten lengthen line of the bodice. For the main fabric I measured down ¼ of an inch to add in the seam allowance (you can add in whatever your preferred seam allowance is). I then measured up from shorten/lengthen line for the Color block mesh pattern piece.
Next cut out the front, neck bands, and arm binding pattern pieces according to the Marina directions.
When cutting out the Marina back, cut out the neckline and the armsyce then fold up the rest of your traced out pattern piece to the bottom line and cut. In the picture it’s the green solid line.
Next fold the top portion of your pattern piece down to the red solid line to form the color block pattern piece. Cut out and now you are ready to sew.
The sewing process isn’t very different than the original Marina Tank. The only difference is to sew the main back to color block mesh. Just line up with right sides together, pin and serge/sew. Once you make the back pattern piece one you can start at the first step of construction for the Marina Tank.
My easy trick for hemming mesh is to use heat boding Hem Tape! I hemmed the front of my tank as normal then flipped and applied the Hem tape and ironed. I tried this technique because my cover-stitch machine kept tunneling the hem.
Now it's all done! I hope you've been inspired to make your own Mesh Color-blocked Curved Hem Marina Tank as much as I do. I love the weight of the Denim Pointelle I used while getting a nice breeze from the mesh back. The over-all feel of this top is light and airy. You definitely don't have to use mesh but living in such a hot climate I'll use any tricks to stay a little cooler.
If you want to grab your own copy of the Marina Tank here's the link.
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