After working on the Myrtlewood for so long, I needed a quick and dirty knit top for some instant gratification sewing.
This probably shouldn't have been it... I made so many dumb mistakes making this top!! Fortunately, it's a nice forgiving ITY, so it is still pretty wearable, but I'm definitely not in love with it.
Here is the side view. I really like the pleated and gathered sleeves. They are so pretty in this drapey fabric!
Back view. This fabric is so cool that I really wanted to use it on something interesting. I chose
this pattern for the interesting wrap detail, so that I could really take advantage of the cool stripe. I think this may have backfired though.
This pink stripe that runs across the bottom of one boob makes it looks smaller than the other. Oops. You can also see in the picture my rookie fitting mistake. The bodice is two layers, and under layer that is just a plain scoop neck and the wrap over layer. I did a traditional FBA on the under layer, but for the wrap layer I just lengthened the "legs" of the wrap, but neglected to alter the upper bodice section of the wrap, so the two sides didn't match up. I should have re-cut the piece, but seriously, y'all, I was just lazy, so I eased the long one into the short one. That's the gathered bit. It looks OK, since the lower section is gathered anyway. It's still not making me jump for joy. Since I didn't alter the entire wrap bodice, it is too small overall and pulls the side seams to the front. Again, not so bad as to make the top unwearable, just enough to make me unhappy with it.
The pattern was basically good, although I did have a few gripes with it. Primarily because it is a Project Runway pattern and therefore supposed to allow you all of these different options, which it does, but I think it does so at the expense of common sense at times. For example, the neckline is just a basic turned under hem, which is fine, except that you hem the wrap overlay first, then sew it to the unhemmed underlay, seam the shoulders and then you are supposed to hem the back and underlay together, except you can because the wrap overlay is in the way. This would work fine for the basic scoop neck without the overlay, but they just didn't think through the way that the overlay would effect the construction. Lazy!
Will I sew it again? Maybe. I like the idea of it and I think if I worked out my fit problems and avoided the stripes this would be a super cute top. I can also see it as a great maternity top, for sometime much later, when I need one of those again.
