More Topping Up

I'm continuing with my bid to top up on my tops and completely ignore the fact that it's no longer Summer here.  That's OK though because in 4 week's time I'm off on a summer vacation to the States so I need a holiday wardrobe!

Today I have the Knit Sweetheart Top from the "Gertie Sews Vintage Casual" book. This is the first pattern I've made from the book and it came together very nicely.

I sewed a size 4 with no alterations and it was the perfect fit - except the sleeve band turned out to be way too loose. This was my first time sewing a fitted knit garment and it didn't occur to me to check the fitting of the band, I just followed the pattern and went for it - I'll know next time.

I think I can get away with the frilly sleeve though and pretend it was just part of the design.

Stay tuned - more tops to come!

Top Up Time

Looking back at my hand made wardrobe I realise that it's mostly made up of dresses and skirts so I thought it was about time to top up on my tops. In an effort to do some stashbusting I dragged out this blue cotton with little hearts on it from my fabric pile, matched it with New Look 6808 from my pattern stash, and voila ...

New Look 6808 is an easy pattern with some cute little collar variations. I actually meant to sew the View C collar but I wasn't paying attention that day and sewed the facing onto the neckline before I realised that I should have attached the collar first. By this time I had already trimmed the seams so I ended up having to go with the plain neckline instead.

I didn't really have too many fitting issues which is nice. I made a size 10 grading to size 12 at the hips. I did my usual swayback adjustment and took out a couple of centimetres from the neckline to stop it from gaping.

The only other change I made was to use an invisible zip instead of a lapped zip. It took me about 4 hours to put together which makes it a nice quick and easy project. I'll definitely try and make View C next time and remember to read the instructions properly!