Bronte top #1

 

If you think that the title of this post infers that there is another Bronte top to report after this one – you’d be correct!

This is the first of the Jennifer Lauren Vintage Bronte tops that I’ve made. I did it in a massive hurry yesterday to bring to Hong Kong, where I am currently staying. In fact, I made three tops yesterday, which has to be something of a record for me, but it does emphasise how easy this one is to make.

The fabric is a piece that I bought from the Fabric Cave in Sydney. I have masses of it and I was a bit concerned about how it would go. A burn test shows that it is basically plastic, but it is soft and quite luxurious feeling, and I wore the top on the plane for hours and I came off the flight as fresh as a daisy (well I wasn’t, but the top was). In fact I only got about 4 hours sleep which is why I look a tad wrecked here).

I do note that Hong Kong is one of the places named on the top, so I thought that was quite nice.

For some reason I decided to use black for the trim and in my haste grabbed the first bit of black fabric to hand. It is actually nylon and then I ironed it, so a bit of my trim is actually melted, but I think I managed to get away with it :), although I can see it has rolled over a bit in the top photo.

I laundered the top when just after I took these photos and by the time I had spent a few hours shopping walking around (didn’t buy anything!) it was dry so I thought I’d try and get some better photos. It didn’t work…

So, awkward pose here, but I thought I’d whip down to the pool to get some photos in the daylight. I didn’t bring my tripod with me, so taking selfies is a tad difficult. I also had my Betty Boops on which doesn’t help as they are a bit bulky and I had to undo the neck straps so they didn’t show.

Last photo because I have just noticed that I appear to have cut the sleeves so that the writing is upside down! I can’t believe (a) that I did this, and (b) that I didn’t notice before. This is what happens when I make something in a hurry I guess.

A quick review of this pattern: It’s a PDF pattern and the design of it is somewhat different from others that I’ve used in that each pattern piece is put together separately. I really like this because you don’t finish up with an enormous sticky taped together piece of paper. It doesn’t have the little triangles to line up and I can’t decide if that’s a good or bad thing. However, it was easy. There are three main pattern pieces (with two sleeve designs – a long and a short) and two trim pattern pieces. This is a very quick make. Everything lines up brilliantly and the instructions are clear and economical. I made two of these in around four hours – the longest part was choosing the fabric to use. I shall be making more!

Details are: Pattern is Jennifer Lauren Vintage Bronte top made in fabric I bought at the Fabric Cave in Meadowbank. I just tried googling it to provide the link, but it seems to have vanished. I hope this doesn’t mean that they’ve shut it down? The pants in my top photo are Vogue 8859, and the shorts in the bottom photo are some RTW ones I’ve had for years. Not seen is my Betty Boop Bombshell. Setting is Hong Kong, although you can’t see much of it!