Hot, hot, hot! July and August are always the hottest months here and as I was digging through my closet, I realized I don’t have any tank tops. How is that even possible! Time to get sewing. I used the new Kendra knit tank pattern from Simple Life Pattern Company to fix that problem.
Kendra comes with options for full back or racer back as well as high neckline or low neckline. For this tank, I chose high neckline and full back. With any of the options, the tank is more fitted at the chest and becomes loosely fitted at the hips.
You can grab this pattern here https://www.thesimplelifecompany.com/product/womens-kendra/?aff=160 (affiliate link)
For the striped tank, I also used the full back but included the low neckline. Although there doesn’t appear to be a huge difference, fabric type comes into play here providing another creative element. Using a fabric that has a great degree of vertical stretch will greatly impact how low the neckline is and the size of the armscyes. The striped fabric is a very structured jersey with almost no vertical stretch that suited the low neckline very well.
Just a side note, I think I used a bazillion pins matching those stripes, but it was so worth it!
On my first attempt with this pattern, I used the low neckline and a very stretchy rayon spandex and ended up with an indecently low neckline and even my bra was showing! Woops, lesson learned. But this light, flowy, fabric was perfect for this and so comfortable so I sized down the pattern one size and changed to the higher neckline and it is absolutely perfect!
Not too shabby of a picture from my 6 year old photographer considering my camera weighs just about as much as he does! The previous photos were taken courtesy of my husband and my 8 year old.
I was enjoying this pattern so much, I had to make one more. We were about to head out for the evening and all the other tanks were waiting in the laundry, so I told my husband I would sew up another one real quick before we left. He said “but we leave in two hours, there is no way you can make a shirt that quick.” Challenge accepted…
Really, though, it wasn’t a challenge at all. This tank is so quick to sew up. But that’s just between us, I’ll let him be impressed.