I thought I’d get started early on the Autumn and Winter sewing, helped by my purchase of some fabric on Instagram from a sewist who was destashing! I bought three pieces, two of which were perfect for sweatshirts of some description. I knew immediately that I’d be making another LB Pullover from Paper Theory with the one piece, a mustard French Terry with a white tulip print. I have many of these tops now, it’s so quick to make, can be sewn in both woven or knit fabrics and fits over just about any tee or blouse I have. It’s perfect to go over the Olya Shirt too!
There was just one metre though, which meant I could either have short, 7/8th length sleeves which would leave my wrists chilly, or make a plan with piecing and have warm arms! In the end, warmth and comfort won out and I made a plan to lengthen the sleeves. I cut the full length I was able with the fabric available, and just cut what was left + hem allowance out of left over bits. It’s worked to make it look like I have a cuff – but if I’d had just a smidge more fabric, I’d have cut that section so that it was doubled, and had a real cuff that I could have folded back if I’d wanted to.
However – I did not have enough and I am very happy with my new top, already worn on many, many occasions! I never thought I’d be wearing mustard, never mind a fabric with a print like this, but I like it. It’s cheerful and bright and works with my colouring despite my initial misgivings! (I thought I would make the top for a daughter – not me…)
The second top is the Fibremood Vera, made from the magazine bought earlier this year as an experiment. I acutally liked a couple of the patterns, but this is the first one I’ve managed to get made up. The fabric is a grey sweatshirt fabric, with tiny flecks of colour in it. It’s warm and snuggly and just the right sort of boxy. The sleeves are 3/4 in length, next time I’ll lengthen them. They’re also fairly wide – wider than expected.
The neck on the Vera is interesting, part of why I decided to make this pattern up. It is faced so makes it thicker than the rest of the top, but it would be interesting to use up leftovers or even pipe that joining seam. One thing I’d change next time with the neckline is to lower the front a bit. You can see in the photos that it’s too high in the front for me, and it gets more annoying as the day goes on. Another change would be to shorten the top slightly, only about the depth of the hem.
I made the Large, based on bust measurements, and for this version did not make an FBA. I might do one next time, but it doesn’t need much. The pattern was easy to trace and the instructions are interesting – they’re all diagrams! You can go online and get more detail if you think you need it, but these were ok for me.
One more stash bust – this time a Sewing Leftovers project. I’d made a Uvita top from some lovely soft stripey jersey and had about half a metre left. I decided to make the Annika top from Style Arc. I bought this paper pattern aaaaages ago, on one of their Etsy sales. It’s one of the mulit-size patterns, they only way I’ll buy a Style Arc pattern. The top has a jersey top half and woven bottom half, sleeves included. So, I used the stripey blue an white jersey for the top part and some blue poly georgette that has been in the stash for a very long time for the bottom part.
I shortened the jersey section because I didn’t like where the join hit me, and removed the shirt hem shape too. This made the top too long on me and just didn’t work. I like this top though, might need a small FBA again for another time, but it’s perfectly wearable like this. Style Arc instructions are brief but you don’t need too much detail to make this pattern. I made the 14, but I think the 12 would fit better at the neck and shoulders, so maybe a FBA on the 12 would be a good idea for next time!
That’s it for stashbusting so far, I’m glad I was able to use up these fabrics and make something useful!
THE COMPULSIVE SEAMSTRESS 