Saturday, May 2, 2015

Jalie 3247 - Crop Top Hack

Today I realized I don’t have many cute, easy sporty tops that I can wear without a sports bra. My kids and I have been doing a lot of races recently (3k, 5k, etc.) and I’m often screaming cheering them on from the side lines. No one would ever call me competitive, *cough, cough*. Anyway, sometimes, I have to add an extra “helpful hand” by running the last mile or so with them to “motivate” them. Again, *cough, cough*. (It’s totally legal, these are just fun runs and not for times or anything.) I usually wear running clothing to these events because I do end up in the chute sometimes and run for very short periods of time.  Today I decided I need some more tops for these occasions. Enter Jalie 3247. I’ve made the bottoms before and turned them into a swimsuit.
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Today I turned the crop top into this. Underneath is a sports bra. I couldn’t run a marathon with it, but it does nicely for these little short distances.
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It covers well in all the right places and the back straps are really comfortable.
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Aren’t they colorful? These are leftover scraps from this FunkiFabrics lycra.
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Do you see I just happened to have (from NCSM) black sparkle FOE??
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Basically I just made a regular and long version of Jalie 3247 and put them together as one. The only really difference is that the band on the bottom of the shelf-bra is not rolled up in the fabric, and is instead just sewn on. I didn’t want a roll of fabric and elastic to show through my outer fabric. Also I wanted to minimize any seams against my skin.
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Don’t mind my “octopus legs”. I was keeping them long until I decided how long to make the straps. Since these pictures, I’ve snipped off the extra length.
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Here’s how I did it in a nutshell. I cut a short and long front and back. I lengthened the front and back by looking at Jalie 2805 and just eyeballing it.
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I put the short version inside and treated them as one when I applied the FOE.
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Then you just follow the Jalie directions. Make the ties, fold over the straps to make a casing for the straps to go through, attach the straps to the back of the top. Like I said the only thing I did differently is to attach the red band (bottom of the shelf bra) directly to the lining fabric.
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Ta da!!! Do you love it? I love it. I can see many more of these in the future!!!
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8 comments:

P E Hudson said...

Wow! I love this decision to frankenpattern the Jalie -- and the top is fantastic on you - and more importantly, fits perfect!

Scruffybadgertime said...

I love it! The straps are really cute but making it with a shelf bra is super interesting, makes it really useful.thanks for explaining how you did it :-)

Fabric Epiphanies said...

I love it! Especially those colourful straps. I have made this top for my daughter as a bikini but hadn't thought of making it this way. I may just try it! I was thinking of doing something similar in merino as a winter thermal.

Kim Hood said...

That is really sharp. I wish I had a bust that would work in that sort of top but sadly I need more engineering 😉. I can see how they will be super useful for you.

Kyle said...

Looks awesome! Great idea!

Melinda said...

Nice hack. :-) My then 16yo attended one running event with me and got inspired, so signed up for the next 5km race. By the time she finished she was so done that she said never again!

If you're looking for good running top patterns with inbuilt bra, check out FehrTrade patterns https://www.etsy.com/shop/fehrtrade she's a marathon runner as well as a sewer and really understands the needs of runners.

Dinah Miller said...

Great top! Is that a power-mesh as the shelf bra fabric? Love it!

Eryn Shields said...

Great hack and you look awesome!


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