It hit me one day that my wardrobe is full of lovely patterned garments and I also have lots of lovely patterned scarves too. You can see where this is heading, can't you? With lots of patterned tops hanging in my wardrobe and sitting in my drawers I only had about three plain coloured tops. Time to do something about that! So over the festive holiday I sewed up quite a few and also bought fabric to make more (which I haven't yet started).
I used two patterns for the tops and this proved very useful as I found I could get two tops on two metres of fabric. Result! The first pattern was one I traced off from a favourite RTW top. I've made it before here and here. The other pattern I used was Simplicity 1463 that I've also made twice before, here and here.
The grey and black jersey fabrics are all viscose jersey with a little lycra and I think I bought them from John Lewis. The burgundy fabric is a similar weight and thickness but has some non-scratchy wool in it so it's lovely and cosy. I bought it from Remnant Kings in Glasgow in September. Have to remember to select wool wash on the washing machine though!
You'll see from the middle photo above that I had to cut the back piece for the grey Simplicity pattern version as two pieces and have a seam up the back but it looks fine. My favourite from these five tops (one black, two burgundy and two grey) is the one I'm wearing in the top photo which is from the pattern I traced. I don't have a pattern piece for the neck band but I've now developed my own method for working out how much to cut. I roughly measure the neck circumference which is usually 26", subtract 2" to tighten the band up and give it the right amount of stretch around the neck. It works for me. For the record, and for future me sewing this up again, I cut a strip of fabric 1.5" wide. I like this narrower band. Body and sleeve hems were turned up and stitched using my twin needle. I didn't do any twin needle stitching on the neck band. I like it just turned and pressed and it's behaving very well as it is.
So there we are, not exciting but essential and tops that I'll wear loads. Some good, solid practical sewing!
