Do you remember this fabric? It's the stuff I used to make the sheer overshirt for Lill's graduation dress. The embroidery is a sort of panel - densely embroidered flowers and stems 'grow' out of one selvedge, and the embroidery becomes more sparse- stems yield to butterflies - along the other selvedge. Since I used the denser side to border the cuffs and hem of Lill's shirt, I had a fair amount of the other side left to play with.
I have a couple of 'default' patterns for smaller pieces of fabric, and you might recognize this shape from my sheer spotted shirt. I love the shape of the cut-on sleeves, but I don't wear that shirt very often because every time I wash that fabric, some of the fibers dislodge themselves and I'm afraid one day the polka dots will disappear completely. That's an excuse for a duplicate if I've ever heard one!
I didn't change the draft much to make this version*, but I did treat the construction differently which I think sets the two apart. I bound all the seams in bias binding, along with the hem, sleeve, and neckline edges. I also bias bound the back neck opening, and finished it off with a button I found.... somewhere. I'm not really sure where the button came from, to be honest, but I didn't buy it... it just kind of turned up one day. That's normal, right?
*okay, I made one change. I moved the shoulder seams back. On the first version, they sat right on top of my shoulders, but I was worried the bias binding would be bulky so I moved them 1" back, so they sit just to the back. I really like the way that turned out!
I know a lot of people think embroidered tulle is scary to work with, but it's really, really not. The tulle is stable, so it's unlikely to stretch, and so long as you're slow going over some of the thicker embroidered motifs, there's no reason to be frightened of fabric like this. The biggest question I had to ask myself was how I wanted to treat the seams, since they show from the outside. I chose to emphasize them with the black binding, so the whole thing has a kind of 'outlined' effect, which I love!
I'll be honest - I made this top several months ago and didn't get around to blogging about it until now, and I haven't worn it a whole lot either. I made it right at the tail end of summer, and since I have no reason to dislike the way it looks I'm fairly certain the reason the fact that not getting its fair share of days out has more to do with it not being seasonally appropriate. It seems like something that I'll live in over the summer, but since it's not cardigan-friendly, I don't find myself reaching for it in cooler weather. I think that's okay, but like I said I'm trying to be more mindful of the seasonality of my makes (tiny house problems). On the other hand, that seems like pretty harsh judgement considering it's leftover fabric and the second use of a draft.
I like it with the nude cami underneath, but I think it would be equally fun with a black one. Surely, a black cami would be useful to have around too! I've put it on my list, but I probably won't get around to it until summer, when this top finds itself in (hopefully) regular rotation again. Only time will tell!
Short and sweet today! I don't have a lot to say about this fella - a make with only two pattern pieces will do that to you, I suppose. I've got quite a few deadlines coming up at the moment - Frocktails Auckland is in August so I'm making a dress (of course) and a coat to match (It's August. I don't want to be cold.) The week before Frocktails, I'm also headed off to Rarotonga (remind me to tell you the story about the timeshare cat) and as we know - a vacation requires a vacation wardrobe. Obviously. Basically, expect SO MANY beach photos. I've got two more weekends left to finish everything!
