Plain cream top

Hello folks and how's your week been? Mine's been busy but in a good way! I've sewn up quite a lot of things recently and I've built up a little backlog again. So you're going to get another post this week. What value! But it's a very plain cream top, you know, the kind of clothing you wear loads but that isn't very exciting to sew or indeed to read about on a blog? I guess I add everything to the blog because I like keeping track of what I've made. Aren't you lucky?!

Taa daa! Here's my cream top I made last weekend. I used the pattern I made from my favourite RTW top in this post and used some lovely bamboo fabric from Edinburgh Fabrics. This has about 2-3% lycra in it and the fabric is LOVELY. I've used bamboo before. Seriously, if you've never used it before, go on! Prewash it first though. I learnt that lesson the hard way! It was about £14 a metre and I bought 2 metres as per usual. Don't let the price put you off, this fabric is worth every single penny.

Isn't it funny that you can look at yourself in the mirror and think 'That top is great!' and then look at the photos and immediately see all the little tweaks you want to make when you sew the next version! Next time I'd sew the whole shoulder area and lower sleeves a bit tighter, I feel they're quite loose but they're not bad enough to make me re-sew them. Let's face it, they'd have to be pretty bad to make me do that!

I sewed seam tape to the shoulder seams to stabilise them. Construction-wise I used the overlocker wherever possible. For the neck band I cut a strip 26" long and cut 3" off it. I overlocked the short edges together (right sides together) and folded it in half. Then I tested the length of the band by pinning it around the neck to see if it would be a good fit. Adjust as required, is what I'd recommend! If your jersey has a lot of stretch or give in it, you may need to make the band shorter but if it doesn't have a lot of stretch, maybe keep it longer. It's a matter of trying it and adjusting and I feel this is true for whatever top where you're adding a jersey band to the neck.

The only place I used the sewing machine was to sew the sleeves and hem with a twin needle. Not a bad job, I'd say. I didn't use any interfacing or any other steps to prevent tunnelling and...I didn't get any tunnelling! And that's not something I can always say. I gave it a press after sewing.

So, that's my 'rather unexciting but probably will get worn useless' cream top. Anyone else been sewing something really useful but not that exciting? Now there's something that probably not may people want to admit to!