Project Runway Top

Okay, so I am ashamed of myself with this top. It took way longer than necessary to make! I cut it out on a Friday night, sewed all but the hem on the Saturday. Then it took me a week to do the hem and take photos. THEN I decided to make a minor alteration and it took me another week to get around to that! Anyway, here it is...The pattern is Simplicity 3504, from the Project Runway series. It's a pretty cute little tunic. I picked it because of the options, and in the end I made something that looks pretty much exactly like one of the pictures on the envelope.

I used a very fine cotton voile with a burnout stripe in it. It was cheap, maybe $7 or $8 per metre (that's cheap here!) and I know it won't last past summer but that's okay. There's not much point making summer tops to last here you just sweat all over them anyway and they go all gross, so it's not worth getting attached.

The next photo demonstrates one of the problems of this top - the fabric is so fine that the edges show through. I did french seams on everything except the armholes, so they are quite neat, but the edges of the inset really bugged me:

So I turned in the inset edges and ran a running stitch around by hand to keep them out of the way. I hadn't done this when the photo below was taken, but it is done by the last picture.

The other thing I noticed after this next picture was taken is the drags on the shoulders. I thought originally that it was a full bust issue and there was nothing I could do, but it turned out that all I needed to do was take in the back neck by about an inch on each side. I just took it out of the centre back seam. I make this adjustment pretty often and particularly in Simplicity and Butterick patterns for some strange reason.

Here's a close up with showing through edges and drag lines:

And here is a full length of the complete outfit. Apologies for the 'after work face'.

Is it just me or do I look like a giant pin head? I need a bit of lift in the upper body to compensate for my ample derriere but these sleeves are not really doing me any favours. Ah well never mind. It's comfy and will be great for the hot weather, and it's not too ugly!

Three more days of work until I have two and a half weeks off. Yay for the sewcation! Oh yeah, and Christmas.