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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

A Tale of Two Tops

A tale of two tops - one more successful than the other…  

Start with the success:  I have been inspired by all the "Luxe" sweatshirts out there in sewing blogland and wanted to make one for me.  I had some stretch lace that was going to be a dress, but the muslin was a fail and I was frustrated with that project so I decided that it was the perfect luxe fabric for the sweatshirt.  
Silver stretch lace backed with an aqua spandex jersey



I lined the stretch lace with a stretchy aqua jersey knit that I purchased from Fabrics dot com and then treated the 2 fabrics as one.
The gray is a light weight ponte knit from the same site.








I ordered 3 swatches before I got the right color of aqua and the right gray fabric.  I'm not a fan of ordering online, but choices for brick and mortar stores are so limited these days.  
Any hints for ordering online would be appreciated.









I ordered this pattern at the same time. Patterns are MUCH easier to order online!  :-) I made version A and sewed a straight up XL, but probably could have made a Large.  I had to take it in quite a bit, but it is a sweatshirt and I wanted it to be roomy so I am happy with the fit.



I didn't change anything except to add a band to the bottom to make it a bit more sweatshirt-y looking.

My best shot at modeling - I was in sewing mode with no make up = no head shots.
I'm happy with how this shirt came out an can't wait to wear it!

Shirt # 2…Not quite as happy with.  I had some beautiful gold loose-weave sweater knit in my stash and was thinking of a flow-y cardigan, but saw a tunic in a store window and decided to give that a try.  

I had this pattern dated 1999 and decided that I could shorten it and get the tunic look I was looking for.  I made version A in a small.


I'm ambivalent about the style on me.  I think that the neckline is too wide for me and the loose weave fabric clings to me in ways that are... not showcasing my best features.  Drop sleeves are not the best look for me either.  I added the bow to try to salvage it and I think it made it worse.  Time to say uncle on this one!
So…I think this is a wadder…live and learn.  I may try to reuse the fabric for another sweater - maybe the cardigan that I originally envisioned.  

I have been working on some other projects, but they are super-secret Christmas projects.  I'll post more about those after Santa makes his appearance.  

Wishing everyone happy holidays full of family, friends and love!