Flying birds cotton top

How are you all? I've decided to have a lazy sunday afternoon and not do any sewing at all! There's just been so much happening recently that after doing lots of holiday washing, cleaning the downstairs and doing some food shopping, I feel like I'd probably make lots of mistakes if I started sewing. Best not to, then!

So, I thought I'd write a blog post instead as I've got a bit of a backlog of unblogged items. This top is one I made the weekend before going on holiday. I thought I needed a few more cotton tops, and I wasn't wrong about that. The weather was really hot, 38 degrees so natural fibres was the way to go. Here's a photo of me in Coimbra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, on my recent holiday in Portugal. What a lovely place Coimbra is, and still a working university. We peered in the Examination Hall where PhD students were undergoing their viva. I wonder if they passed? We also went in the beautiful, stunning Library.

Anyway, back to the sewing! The fabric is a 100% medium weight cotton in a dark navy/indigo with printed stylised flying birds. I pre-washed the fabric before cutting out the pattern.

I used New Look 6225 that I've used before. It's a loose fitting raglan short sleeved top with darts at the bust. I made bias binding with the fabric and used it to finish the neckline. the sleeve hems and body hem are simply turned up twice and machined. I understitched the bias binding then top stitched it so it's made a very neat finish and reinforced the neck so it doesn't stretch. I'm pleased with how this has turned out. I seem to have varying results with self-made bias binding.

So this has turned out well and I wore it on holiday. I think it'll go very well with the magenta Julia cardigan I made a month or so ago. Wow, a co-ordinating wardrobe! Who'd have thought it...:)