Basic black ballet top McCalls

 

This is a simple but very wearable basic black ballet style top. Its a favourite style for me and made from my TNT McCalls 6612.

Its just plain black scuba.

I really made this for work but as you can see its just as wearable with my favourite play cothing;

Here its worn with my RP Cerena trousers.

I rarely make the more wearable practical stuff like this top because its kind of boring but really I should get round to a few more basic things like this because at least they are value for money because I actually will probably wear this one out. It is money well spent.

And for winter this will be very warm!

Take care and have a lovely day.

Thanks for popping by,

Bracken

Red lace vampire top

This top is made from a knitted acrylic ( I think) lace fabric. I previously made a dress from this.  

Its nice and very light weight so a good spring fabric for when you fancy mesh or lace but do not want to freeze. The pattern is McCalls 6612 which is one of my TNT patterns. Though I reckon its a bit too wide necked for the fabric and would have been better in the Lydia Burda pattern. It has a tendancy to fall off my shoulders. Usually I have made this in scuba or T shirt weight cotton and that works better. Still done now so I will learn from that one.

I added stretch black lace to the edges which gives it that vampire feel.

Though I felt it was a little light weight when I wore it at work even though speaking to my colleagues via Teams. Like I was not quite appropriately dressed. I am sure on a laptop screen they could not tell but one to remember when we are physically back on site.

Its one for play I think really. Worn with my camo leggings though its a nice spring weekend outfit.

Take care 

Bracken

 

Fluorescent Pink dress and T shirt

I came across this fluorescent pink fabric a few weeks back and its just sat there in my fabric stash and  I decided I really should get round to making something in this before the summer is over.

I love fluorescents but they can be hard to wear and it very much depends on my personal confidence levels as to whether I am currently able to handle them.

They do kind of work with hot summer weather though. It has already gone from very hot to rainy but its not yet too late for a summer dress. I feel I should use this fabric while its still new because its the kind of colour I may just decide in a years time that I hate and cannot handle and then it will remain my my fabric stash till who knows when, so I went for a simple fast to make vest dress and cropped raglan long sleeved top over it to make it wearable for both hot sunny and cold rainy days.

Its a stretch polyester crepe fabric. I actually said I would never buy any more of this crepe stuff but in this case the crepe is not obvious and quite subtle and has a much less obvious crepe texture than many of these fabrics, and to be perfectly honest I surprisingly decided the right side of this fabric is OK for this. Usually I use the reverse because I see this fabric as old-lady-ish. Maybe its the bright pink makes it acceptable? Who knows.

Anyway I cut this out one evening and sewed it Saturday morning and wore it Saturday afternoon. I went food shopping in it and have to say it turned heads in Aldi and that does not happen much these days. I am usually too boring in my dress to get noticed.

This is very bright though. A true fluorescent.

Seems all ages and all genders noticed this bright pink dress. But then it is "in yer face". I have some ancient DC trainers which include fluorescent pink and they went very well with this look.

Especially since it was a very rainy cold day so the high top shoes kept me warm. It was actually raining when we took the photos hence they are a bit uninteresting because I was pretty cold.

Honestly what you do for blogging!


I used my well used, and starting to fall appart and I need to trace a new version, dress pattern: McCalls M6612 but I left the sleevs off and shortened the skirt a bit, and I previously made a different view of this top which is Butterick B5679.

I left the collar off for the bright pink though because it seemed a bit OTT to have the cowl neck when its the middle of summer. I did toy with adding a hood but in the end went for the plain wide boat neck instead. I think its a good choice. I extended the sleeves a litter bit too much.

The original black top had slightly too short sleeves which annoys me every time I wear it so I added a few inches but now they are just slightly too long. They work OK rolled up for now and to be perfectly honest standing there in the rain with my sleeves over my hands was much better than being cold.

Its all overlocked in white because I had no fluoro pink thread and then twin needle stitched in black because I thought it looked more punk than white (and it was already threaded in the machine making it easier and faster to make). It looks quite nice I think with the contrast stitching.

So not the hardest outfit to make, or the most inventive outfit, but I have to say despite the crepe polyester fabric I love this new look and intend to wear this loads for the rest of this summer.

See you next week

Bracken

One two three black tops

I realised back in may when we all took are in the #MMM2019 challenge that one thing my wardrobe really, really needs is basic black tops so here are three to start me off. These are all versions of McCalls M6612.

This one has the top as made from the pattern with no alterations:

It is plain black cotton lycra ribbed fabric.

 

This one is the same pattern but I raised the front neckline and lowered the back neck since I really want a ballet style low back top. There as no rules for this and no guidelines. I just cut the back out on the fold as usual and left the piece folded and cut the neck lower. had no idea how low but its impossible to wear a normal bra with this without it showing so next time I may have to consider that if I make another one of these. other than that it fills a need I had for a low back top for summer autumn very well. I reversed the ribbed fabric to make this top so the rib is the inside of the fabric I used for the normal top above.


That gives me what looks like two different fabrics. You can tell if you look at the inside of this top. So I made one form each side of the fabric. I had to sew them up in daylight rather than electric light which delayed my finishing these because I really could not tell which side of the fabric was which at night.

You can probably tell this is the top I like the best! Its not really work worthy though.

The my third top is a normal M6612 back and I raised the front neck because this pattern actually has a very low front ( as seen in the first top) and sometimes I really wish it was higher. This is a thicker less stretchy ribbing.




I made this orange dress from this fabric last summer and it keeps it shape well so will be good for an every day work top. I probably won't wear this one until the weather cools down a bit.

So not the most interesting sewing this week, but should make a huge difference to my getting ready for work in the mornings because it will be much easier with these three basic tops and save me time trying to work out what goes with what.

See you next week

Bracken

fluoro yellow top

This is my TNT pattern McCalls M6612 which I seem to have used loads. This is especially interesting since I bought this pattern by accident. There was an online sale on and I was binge buying.

I must have put this in the basket but did not realise. I was pretty peevved when it arrived but since then I seem to have made absolutely loads from this pattern.

So this top follows my sportswear theme and is stretch polyester crepe reversed. Its nice to wear despite having the texture on the inside.

Its very much a ballet type top.

Its worn here with my velvet yoga pant -

Burdastyle 01/2016 112

I do not wear these much nowadays and was seriously considering recycling into something new but I was not feeling very well on Saturday when these photos were taken and I found they were just what I needed to cuddle up in so they are staying for now.

Unfortunately I decided to learn to do mock flatlock stitch when making this top. It all went fine till I sewed up my sleeves and then the body sides started to come undone.



 I had not even tried it on yet so decided this was a bad idea and resewed with a normal 4 strand overlock stitch so the end results is much plainer than I originally intended.

I have left the mock flatlock across the shoudlers - you can just about see in the photo - and have worn this twice and so far so good but its not quite as good a finish as I wanted.


I really did the flatlock so I did not need to worry about not having matching thread since black was fine as a contrast. All the colours I currently have would contrast rather than match fluorescent yellow and I do not realy want to invest in any more cottons at the moment.

The top would probably look much better without a racer backed exercise top under it but never mind thats how I tend to wear them!



I kind of like the layered look!

If I wear it with work clothes I will try to get a photo taken to show the different looks.

 

I do not think I will bother with the effort of altering my overlocker again to do mock flatlock stitch though.  Probably due to being only 3 threads its just not strong enough. It does not feel very strong as a stitch at all.

Anyway I like the top very much but expect this will not last as long as I had hoped. I suppose often when you buy clothing you do not expect it to last forever but I am different with stuff I make. I want it to last so I expect it to.

Thanks for visiting and being part of my sewing adventure

Bracken