74: Quick Party Top

I realised amid constructing my coat - more on this later in a different post, that I needed something for the works Christmas Party. Its a lunchtime party so pretty informal. I also wanted to have something that I will wear again so it needed to be a bit fancy but not too OTT. In the end I decided to have another go at making a raglan from Newlook 6230. I made a top from this pattern before but it was pretty disappointing. You can see it in this post here
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/27-better-picture-of-orange-raglan-top.html
I had only just returned to sewing then so thought it was down to me why the top turned out the way it did. Now I have made it again my conclusion is that the neckline is just wide and lower than the picture. This time I went down two sizes and remembered to take out the seam allowance from the back piece. The pattern wants you to have a seam up the back but I cannot see the point assuming you have enough fabric not to so I removed this. Last time though I assumed the reason the top was wide around the neck was because of this. I was wrong. Its still wide. As it turns out that worked out well for what I was after. It is also very fashionable. I have seen lots of tops in stores recently with this neckline so I may use this particular patttern again for something else.
Anyway, I had quite a bit of this silky black fabric left from my yoga pants here
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/22-plain-black-yoga-pants-made-in-rush.html
I decided to add some white stretch lace to the neckline. Mainly because it is very quick to finsh and would give my top a bit of something extra when this was a last minute top with no time to spare. I am not really a white lace person but bought this on impulse and have until now not found a use for it. I thought with the black fabric being synthetic it should hopefully not run when its washed which a black cotton probably will so I can have a good contrasting lace look. I have not washed it yet so time will tell with this theory!
I sewed everything using my overlocker. It all went well until sewing up the lace. It sewed fine to the edge but I decided to try and cut out all the steps I could so, first I sewed the sleeves to the back. Then the front to one sleeve but left the other for now. Then I sewed lace to all the edges except where the seam for the front to the sleeve that I had left. Hopefully this makes sense. Then when I came to sew up the front to the second sleeve it should sew the edging as well and encase it. Well great in theory, but the overlocker cut the lace but didn't sew it! I tried three times which meant I have a weird angle on the join.

In the end I had to sew it by hand. The angle does not really show when worn but I am rubbish at hand sewing. It was the same with all the bits of lace at the edges. Then on sleeve I managed to not quite line up to make matters even worse.

So I thought at first I was not going to wear this to the party becaue it was not even worthy of wearing as a me made in May when I am running out of clothes to wear. The finish was awful. So what else can I do. I need something to wear. Preferably something a bit fancy. Then I decided to add black satin ribbon bows to the hand sew bits.

The result is not quite average but when I wore this I felt fabulous.

 My reasoning is designer clothing often has quirky things like bows so why not? The ribbon the bows are made from is double sided satin so very nice ribbon and I actully felt really good at the party wearing this so my near disaster turned out just great.

This is not a top I would normally make because I tend to avoid fussy things like embelishments and bows but I did used to wear things like this when I was younger, so maybe it is time to have a few things in my wardrobe like this. After all one of the lovely things about making your own clothes is you can have it all. You do not have to chose one style and stick with it. Of course, there is nothing wrong if you do and perhaps that is also easier to achieve your own stylewhen you make your own clothes. I cannot remember who it is now, but one blogger I visit makes in red,  purple and black and white only and it works great. Because me-made tends to cost slightly (or sometimes lots!) less you can experiment more easily. Perhaps its time I did just that and started to be a bit more adventurous because the addition of bows was a stroke of genious and if I had not rushed my sewing to make this for a last minute party outfit I would never have done this, I am so happy I did!

Thanks for visiting

Bracken