I’ve been pretty busy this month and I’ve made a couple more tops, both of which I really like – hence the statement that my tops are the tops…
I had another go at Kwik Sew 4175, going down a size and raising the neck a little. This time I used a remnant from Knitwit and I was so surprised when I looked at these photos, to see the random orange blocks of colour – I would have sworn this was a really even pattern. I do have a slightly embarrassing pattern placement on one side, but I looked at this top a few times in the mirror and didn’t notice any of this, so assume that no-one else will notice either (except you as I’ve kindly pointed it out 🙂 ).
I used a contrasting cotton knit for the back, also a remnant from Knitwit. This is magnificent fabric and I’ve bought quite a bit of it over the years. I also love the colour.
I couldn’t get my head round having a single colour band round the neck, so I matched the fabrics front and back.
I have worn this top a couple of times already; it’s comfortable and I feel nice in it. The trousers are so old that I have forgotten what the pattern was.
The other top has a story, so brace yourselves! You might remember that a while ago I bought some fabric in an op shop, only to find it was all cut up, and then I discovered that it was, in fact, a top, which I called my Leap of Faith top, as I made it without having a clue how it was supposed to finish up . Well, this is a variation on that theme: I found this lovely cotton lace that I know was sold by Knitwit (because I have some in my stash already 🙂 ) and thought I’d better buy it because, you know, op shop prices! It cost 50cents, but when I got it home I found this – yes, another half made top, but this one is an easy fix
I wasn’t sure why it had been recycled, but assume that it was just tacked together, with no effort to match the seams
Luckily the stitching just pulled out, no unpicking required as there was no backtacking!
I pulled out my t-shirt block, created during my pattern-making class, and laid it on and could see that I had plenty of fabric to work with
I made it as long as I could and went wide down the sides. I had been puzzled as to why this project had been abandoned, but think it was because the top had been cut with the stretch going down and not across. This did worry me, but the top worked out well.
There was another small piece of fabric in the bundle and I managed to get sleeves from this – with the stretch going the correct way. I used the selvedge edge as the frill at the bottom of the sleeves, and simply turned under the neckline and hem and coverstitched them.
It’s a little see through, but I decided not to be too worried by this. These are both perfect tops when the weather isn’t overly hot, which it hasn’t been this week. 
I bought a bit of other fabric from the same op-shop visit and will be sewing it soon. Trousers are Vogue 8859 in white stretch cotton and are quite a few years old now.