Get crafty (part 3) - Create your own custom Trinidad Carnival Monday wear

The start of my Monday wear journey...

Happy New Year!  It’s your Trinidad Carnival Ambassador, Esha here and I’m continuing with my quest for customized (and more affordable) Monday wear.  This blog and the next blog will continue with the decorating of the top.  

But before I get into that, the Ultimate Atlanta Carnival Experience being held in May 2017 is here!  If you haven't checked out your opportunity to have some Trinidad Carnival fun in the US of A (a.k.a. stateside bacchanal), check it out by clicking here.  Okay, back to the Monday wear.

The left side of the elastic trim sewn and the right side pinned

First up, the center front.  I’ve taken my silver studded elastic trim and starting at the center front, pinned it to the sides of the neckline.  Remember my last blog when I realized that I couldn’t use my sewing machine to sew this trim?  Well, hand sewing was in full effect!  It didn’t take that long and was quite painless, to my surprise (smile).  Here’s a photo of the left side sewn with the right side pinned to the top ready for sewing.  I inserted a white piece of paper so you can clearly see the neckline.  Thanks for your feedback that you couldn’t see the neckline clearly due to the pattern!

Next was sewing the vegan leather trim to the bottom of the top.  This was the part I was most excited (and anxious) about.  I didn’t know if I could use my regular sewing foot on my machine and was really hoping that I wouldn’t have to purchase a Teflon foot.  A Teflon foot is what’s usually recommended when sewing leather. 

To my delight – it sewed just fine!  It went slowly, but I was able to sew 2 rows of the vegan leather to the bottom of the top.  I think this trim adds something unique to the top and (of course) I love how it looks!  Here are a few photos of the fringe in process:

First row of vegan leather trim

2 rows of vegan leather trim sewn on - yay!

Side note: remember if sewing isn't your thing, you can also hot glue gun any embelishments to a purchased tank top!

*Sigh* okay, I have a confession to make.  The part that I’ve been putting off is sewing the armholes.  I haven’t been very successful with sewing binding on armholes in my past sewing projects, hence feeling anxious about doing this.  Since I couldn’t use the studded, elastic trim, I found some black, ½ inch grosgrain ribbon in my stash and got to work.  It didn’t turn out too badly!  I’ll just need to give it a good pressing (thank goodness for irons!) and trim the fabric a wee bit so it doesn’t show on the right side.  Here’s a close up of the sewn armhole:

Mission armhole completed!

That’s it for now!  Part 4 will be the final post in this series and in this post, I’ll add the elastic trim above the vegan leather trim, add a hook and eye to the back closure, sew the tassels on  and insert the grommets and the chains!  There will even be a BIG reveal...stay tuned…

Til de next lime,

Esha