FO: sleeveless cowl #2 and a (very simple) refashion

I made this top last week to boost my summer top selection.  Whilst I have sewn a lot of tops over time (more than anything else), they mostly seem to be long sleeved/cooler weather tops.

This is another version of the MyImage Cowl neck top from the Autumn/Winter2012 magazine. I left the sleeves off again and did pretty much the same as I did for my last sleeveless version. I got a new sewing machine for Christmas (lucky me!) so everything I have made since has been with this machine.  I found a great stitch on my old machine when I did the hem on my black version, but there doesn't appear to be the same/similar stitch on my new one, so I just did a zigzag stitch.

 

Now that I have made this top a few times (2 long sleeved, 2 sleeveless) I find that it is a very quick and satisfactory make. I *love* the cowl neck and the way that it fits at the back. I think the back piece is marginally slimmer than the front piece, which gets rid of some of the pooling of excess fabric that I sometimes get.

I have linked to it before, but I use the tutorial from Melissa at FehrTrade for the neck line finish.

The long shorts/cropped trousers that I am wearing in these pictures were refashioned in MeMadeMay. A few years ago I bought some long tracksuit trousers that were too long. I then shortened them, but it was too much and they looked ridiculous.  I put them away to deal with later and promptly forgot all about them. In my effort to go through some of my stuff during MMM I found them again and very quickly sorted them out. I put them on, pinned roughly where I wanted to cut them and checked in the mirror before I cut them.  I used the cut-off section of each leg to create a cuff using the calf band pattern piece form the Hudson pants, and ended up with a quick pair of lounging/casual trousers.  I was a bit concerned that even with my careful checking of where I cut the legs, the finished seam attaching the cuff might be a bit irritating as it is right in the crook of my knee.

Happily, having worn these quite a few times now, they are very comfortable. The fabric is incredibly soft so the seam is not irritating at all.

Catching up with blogging again - Party Top

Continuing with my catching up of unblogged items, here is a sleeveless cowl top.

Photo lightened so you can see the drape

I made this last November in about a day and a half which is unheard of for me!  A friend of mine invited us to her 50th birthday party. I had bought a stretchy multicolour sequin skirt specially for the party, but had been unable to find a top to go with it, so I whipped one up!

I knew exactly what I wanted  - just plain black with a cowl neck. I used the MyImage cowl neck pattern that I have made before here and here, and just left the sleeves off.

After having my sewing machine for 16 years I discovered a really good stretch stitch, which is probably a lightening stitch.

lightening stitch?

I had tried to twin needle the hem but that did not look good, so I tried this new stitch and it was fab.  I used Wondertape to help with all the hemming which helped tremendously. I left the edge of the cowl drape raw as it tucks inside the top and doesn't get seen.  I think I did this on the other two that I made as well.


Unfortunately I haven't any pictures of me wearing it at the party - which reminds me I must try and get some from my friend!

New Top

I made a new top last week.

I was looking at the Burdastyle site the week or so before, and saw that Melissa of Fehr Trade had put up alot of her projects. I clicked through and read about loads of her projects. There was one top of hers that I particularly liked, from a magazine called InStyle. I love cowl neck tops, and had been thinking I might try and alter a straight forward t-shirt type top to have this style of neckline. Having seen this top I decided that I didn't need to bother (not yet anyway!) I also really liked the super long sleeves.

I ordered the magazine, which took less than a week to come, then put off doing anything whilst I continued to prepare for the disasterous table top sale. Once that was out of the way I wanted something relatively simple to try, so I traced this out one morning last week when I had a daughter off sick. She was very interested in what I was doing and much better for her to help/watch me than slump in front of the TV. I had a minor panic when I realised that I didn't know whether to add seam allowances or not and I couldn't find anything in the magazine to tell me. I emailed Melissa and she very promptly replied that I did - Thanks Melissa!

That evening I chose the material from my small collection of jerseys from Goldhawk Road, and decided on a navy/french navy piece, which I think is a viscose jersey:

Melissa said in her post that she made her top in an hour, and I can see how this can be done, but this is the first all jersey peice I have made (rather than chopping up old t-shirts), so I took my time. I cut out, followed Melissa's tutorial for a neat finish on a cowl, and did the side seams in one sitting, I really struggled putting in one sleeve in a second sitting (probably due to a couple of glasses of wine and sewing too late in the evening). I then managed to get the second sleeve in without too much drama, and finished of the hems in a third sitting. I overlocked the hem of the sleeves and body, but I wasn't sure what else to do with them. So for me this was quite a quick make...

When I appeared wearing it on Sunday, my girls though it was something I had bought (as did my mother -in-law when she saw it).
The pictures are all a bit dark. It seems quite hard to a decent indoor photo at any time of day at the moment. In the last photo, I am wearing a RTW cardigan that I bought some time ago and for some reason the collar rolls up after I have worn it for a while. This is clearly seen in the photo - is there anything I can do to the collar to stop it doing this?