This self-drafted top was made about a month ago when the weather was much colder here in the Northeastern U.S. Temperatures are milder now although there is still enough coolness in the air for me to wear it.
I ran into a little bit of trouble with the sleeves since I did not purchase enough fabric. When I purchased the fabric, for whatever reason, I purchased enough for a set-in sleeve but I wanted to make a raglan sleeve and a raglan sleeve has extra length to accommodate the shoulder. I completely forgot about this little fact when purchasing the fabric!
Pondering how to resolve this problem, I was thinking of making it a 3/4 sleeve or perhaps adding a band at the bottom of the sleeve. I realized that the raw edge of the fabric was right in line with where I had planned to have the folded edge of the hem. Looking at what a nice clean cut edge the ponte had, I decided to just leave the edge of the sleeve with a raw edge hem. I have seen this treatment often in ready to wear so it will just have to work for me!
Once I realized what a clean raw edge the ponte provided, I decided to use this characteristic to bind the neckline. I cut off the seam allowance along the neckline. I then cut strips 1 1/4" wide and simply folded it so that the raw edge of the animal print fabric abutted the folded edge of the strip. I made sure the strip was wider on the wrong side of the animal print fabric so that I could catch the strip while topstitching. I positioned it by basting it in place and then I topstitched it.
Once I was done, I felt like the top still needed a little something. It just seemed boring to me and a little frumpy on me. I tried different necklaces but I was just not happy with the look. Looking at the various strips of fabric on my cutting table, I decided to play around with the strips and realized I could place them strategically along the neckline. Much like the sunburst design you see with pleats on many tops, I decided to do something similar with the strips. Since the neckline binding on the fashion side of the fabric is 1/2" wide, I decided the strips would be 1/2" wide as well.
I positioned them in place with 1/2" Steam-a-Seam fusible tape. I used a light setting on my iron and a pressing cloth on top so as to not damage the fabric or create shine on the black strips. Once they were bonded in place, I topstitched them down. I figured even though they were bonded in place, I wanted to make sure they stayed that way when laundered a few times.
I like the top much better now that it has these strips in place. They look like piano keys to me.
Here is the back view:
Well, I want to move on to pants. I have lots of fit issues with pants so I hope to tackle this next...or maybe the pants will tackle me. Ha!
Happy sewing!
