I finished another top for the Pattern Challenge!  I’ve been having too much fun sewing clothes for myself, I’m worried I might turn into the Selfish Seamstress!!

Does anyone recognize that fabric?  It’s the ever lovely and luscious Liberty of London in Dunvina.  I purchased it when I was in London at Shaukat Fabrics (they have a humongous stock of gorgeous Liberty prints at the best prices I’ve seen, you can order them online).  I only purchased 3/4 metre, which was just enough to make the body/sleeves of this top.  I had originally envisioned the collar made out of the same fabric, but alas, I ran out.  Instead a used a beautiful cotton/sateen by Robert Kaufman.

I used the basic top and sleeve pattern from…you guessed it….Simplicity 2599 (are you guys majorly sick of this yet?) and added a self-drafted peter pan collar.  The collar is the sweetest accent and it was so much fun to make!

I used this method for attaching the peter pan collar, and it worked out perfectly!  If you do decide to use that tutorial, the one part that confused me was what width of bias tape to cut.  In the tutorial she says to use a 1.5″ folded bias strip, which I took to mean cut a strip 1.5″ and fold it in half.  This leaves you with a 3/4″ bias strip, which is fine, but when you go to sew it on you’ll need to use a about 1/4″ seam allowance in order to have enough to fold to the back and topstitch (rather than the 1/2″ seam she instructs you to use).  Other than that one point of confusion, the tutorial was great!

To give this top some shape I used elastic thread to shirr 3 rows under the bust.

I love that the inside looks as finished as the outside with serged raw edges and the bias tape cover around the neck.  It also doesn’t hurt that there really isn’t a wrong side to this fabric!

Oh my, wouldn’t this make the sweetest dress?

Filed under: Creations, Pattern Challenge |