When I got sent this free pattern from SewSewEasy I thought it had everything. Wrap top, hood, long cuffs with thumbholes! I intended to make it last winter when it arrived but as ever had so many other projects going on I never got round to it. I have this lovely paisley fabric I bought a while back which was always intended for a wrap top so it seemed the perfect choice.
Well what can I say about this pattern? I chose the size to match my measurements but sadly it did not fit. It is sized for adults but I think must be made for very short little people not for giants like me. Not that I am a giant at 5 foot 7 inches ( about 168cm I think).The hood is minute as in really small to non existent as you can see here looking at just the paisley fabric it simply does not cover the head and probably will not on anyone. I do not think I have a particularly large head. The sleeves are too short or if you want the thumbholes they are too short.
The back has an extra panel at the bottom that seems completely pointless and it could be made with longer princess panels to eliminate that. It is based on a princess seamed top with an extra bit to make the hood - which doesn't work being too small!
So I made it up to find everything wrong with it.
What to do?
Scrap it?
I like this fabric although it was inexpensive hence making a muslin could actually have cost more than simply making up in this fabric. This fabric would make very good underwear and I probably will do that with the left over scraps but I did not really want to chop this up. At least not just yet. It would be nice to get a few wearings as a top because there was a lot of effort to make this top.In my stash I had some bright orange ribbing left over from this top:
Theres more here on this top which I originally also considered a disaster but I do actually quite like:
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/mmmay16-day-19-green-orange-top.html
All I had was really just small scraps of left over orange ribbed fabric so I had to make do and make this work as best I could. Having got this far I needed to try and rescue my new top.
So I cut a very wide band - about 10-12 inches wide and doubled this over to add onto the front to make the hood work. This left me with some short narrow bits of ribbing. I cut these to fit the bottom edge. To make them long enough I had to join several small bits together. I used the bottom of the sleeves as a pattern to cut a couple of lining pieces so I could make thumb holes.
Now the instructions for this top are virtually non-existent so to make it I had to visit the SewSewEasy blog and read the comments. What I did not get at all was the pattern instructions say to cut two squares. So when reading the comments I discover they are from a different pattern that have been accidentally left on this one. Fine. Only I think that is wrong because you need a lining to make the thumbholes. Well unless you make this top for a child you will.
The pattern pieces are strange but it is relatively easy to understand from the pictures what goes where. Either way it just does not work so to make it work you need to make it bigger at the hood and cuffs. The only sensible way to finish the bottom edge seems to add a second band here as well. If I had had more fabric I would have added a wider band on the bottom because even for a wrap top its a bit too short. I must remember to wear a long top under it next time because I spent the entire day pulling this down over my too old to show to the world belly! I know crop tops are in but its not my look. I am after all over 50!
You can see the problem below and this is when its pulled down:
Despite my serious amount of bodging I think it works in the end. I do not recommend this pattern though.
The sizing is completely wrong.
It looks great in the pictures from SewSewEasy but simply does not end up anything like the photos.
Or mine did not and as far as I can tell I did not do anything wrong in construction.
By adding bits on it kind of works but next time I want a wrap top I will use one of the Burda ones because I already made two of this very simple pattern and it works and adding a hood would be relatively easy.
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/95-and-96-skirt-and-top-for-tms-bright.html
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/mmm17-day-6-green-mesh-top.html
The Burda top is also a very fast make and this took several days before I could decide how to rescue it and the Burda top is a comfortable top to wear and I feel good in both versions whereas this top is not because I wore it to work yesterday and did not feel comfortable all day long!
Verdict: forget this pattern and use a different one. Don't waste your nice fabric on this!
Thanks for reading
Bracken
No comments:
Post a Comment