My First Serged Garment!

I know I said two posts ago that I wasn't going to make another one of this draped top. However, I had just gotten a serger (my mother-in-law, who is also a fantastic quilter, gave me hers) and was just raving to make something with it. I wanted my first serged garment to work out with a minimum of fussing, so I decided to go with a pattern that I had used before that I knew would fit and chose the draped top pattern. I was pretty happy with the original version that I had made, but after wearing it a couple of times, I decided that it could have been cut a little smaller and, in particular, the the back neckline could be reduced down one size for a better fit. For my second attempt, I also had much nicer fabric: a nylon lycra knit which felt nicer against the skin and also draped much better. I moved the center back fold line about half an inch closer to the side seam and was going to leave the front piece alone but then discovered that this new fabric was narrower than the 60 inches I had assumed it to be and so, to make all the pattern pieces fit, I also moved the center front fold line slightly less than half an inch closer to the side seam. I reduced all my 5/8 inch seam allowances to 1/4 inch because the serger was going to trim everything down to 1/4 inches anyway. Viola! Here is my first serged garment:



The nice draping is much easier to see in this fabric. It was a snap incorporating clear elastic when I sewed the shoulder seams, using the feed function on the serger foot. All the nicely finished edges made me very happy. Here is a view of the serged inside of the garment:



Wow! All I have to do now is figure out how to get professional-looking labels for my clothes and I will be all set! I've been making them by using the letter embroidery function on my sewing machine to sew the words "HuxleyWuxley" onto wide ribbon but they look sort of home-made. If you sew and put labels on your clothes, please leave a comment letting me know how you get your labels made.