And…DONE!

This week has turned out to be a real doozy for me.  I really thought I was going to have to postpone the due date on this again.  But somehow it came together.  YAY!
 

     So here was the sketch I was going off of.  

I went through my box of patterns, looking for some that would help me with the basic pieces.

 

  I decided to go with this vintage maternity top/dress pattern (there is no way I could pull off  a maternity dress that short!  good gravy) because I wanted enough room in the top to allow for a full body and shirring at the hem.


 Here is how I laid out my pattern pieces on my fabric.

If you look, you can see I was using my own sleeve pattern.  I thought I matched it well to the arm holes of the manufactured pattern, but, uh, we’ll get to that in a minute.  I pulled both the front and back pieces over off the side of the fold of the fabric, since I didn’t need near as much room in the top as the maternity pattern required. 

After cutting out the neck yoke piece, I decided not to use it at all.  I was going to just cut a V in it for the neckline I planned, but it just wasn’t getting the look I wanted.  So instead I cut out two angled strips and added them to the yoke-less, squared neckline, after gathering it a little bit.

I used a rolled hem on all raw edges of the cut pieces.   

The fabric I was using (cheap-O red tag at JoAnn, this season) frayed and flaked like crazy.  In fact, I think I may be done with sheers for a while after this and the Brave New Top.   At least really cheap sheers.  Or all sheers.  I’m kind of over them right now. But I do like the sheerness contrasted with the fullness of the top’s main body.  I feel like it still allows for shape.  But really, I don’t know what I’m talking about so whatever.

I did the same method of shirring as with the Every Day Raglan, only this time I figured out to pull the elastic thread tightly as I sewed the bridge stitch over the top.  It shirred up super awesome doing that.  One day I’d like to have a machine with a separate bobbin casing, in addition to my regular machine, just for shirring.  It would be great to shirr the “regular” way.  But the sewing-over-the elastic-thread way works, too.  It just takes more coordination than I’m really capable of for an extended period of time. 

The sleeves gave me some trouble, what with turning out to be for pygmies and all.
   

But I got that fixed, with my assigned Continuous Sleeve Plackets and Shirt Cuffs nicely in place.

And viola!

 

 

I was unsure of how I felt about it at first.  I think I spent too long unpicking and staring at the fabric to be objective any longer.  But I’m liking it more and more.   

Thanks, Christie for taking the pictures.  And thanks strangers with cute house for letting me pose in front of it.

Linking to some of these parties.