I was asked if I’d like to join the Fibremood link party and I was delighted to say yes. I chose the Alice top as I felt that this would fit perfectly into my current lifestyle and I had a piece of thrifted fabric that I thought would be the perfect thing.

It was a super quick make, and I loved the shape of the neckline, particularly as the top can be worn either way round and the v neck at the back is pretty nice.

Here are the line drawings of the front and back, or is that back and front??

As mentioned, I used a piece of thrifted ribbed knit, but the only problem was that the folded edge had a slight ingrained grubbiness that no amount of laundering would remove. I figured that it would iron out, but it didn’t.

I decided that I had been presented with the perfect opportunity to use the beautiful ceramic buttons crafted by my Instagram friend Janyeraven.

I took so many photographs of this top, and I couldn’t choose my favourites, so you are getting more than the regulation few!

The front (or back view). I think this may be my favourite way of wearing the top as I am a sucker for buttons down the back.

Here is the front view – I really like how it looks this way too.

Having worn the top quite a bit (luckily we’ve had a cold snap here in Perth), I feel as though I could size down next time, but this will be perfect in the cold weather with a thin turtleneck underneath for warmth, when I would probably wear it this way round.

The back view with the V at the front.

A close up of the beautiful buttons, see the designs stamped into them?

Some details about the making of Alice. As can be seen this is a very simple sew. I chose the pattern as it fits so well into my current lifestyle and would be a perfect make for those in lockdown as it is extremely comfortable to wear. It is casual, but quite smart at the same time. I like to make things I can wear at home but also wear to have coffee or go shopping. This pattern fits that bill beautifully.

The pattern is well drafted and uses layers so you only need to print your size, and you can choose whether or not you want to include the 1cm seam allowance, or leave it off to add your own. This is quite clever, I think. V necks can be problematic, but this one went in like a dream. I did find that the facing wanted to flip out and I tried tacking it down at the front and back centre, but I could see my stitches, so I just ran round it with the coverstitch machine, which is a detail I really like anyway. A twin needle would work too. I used the same fabric for the cuffs and bands as it is a ribbed knit, so worked perfectly. I considered coverstitching them too, but find that this sometimes makes the join stiff and I don’t like the effect, so I simply stitched them on with the overlocker using a lock stitch and pressed them well.

I can’t wait to make another one of these, going down in size. I’ve lost some weight so am still getting used to my new size, so don’t think this is a reflection of the pattern. I really fancy a wool one made from recycled jumpers and was going to do this prior to this post, but simply ran out of time. It will happen though!

As mentioned, this make is part of the Fibremood link party. Every link party I’ve done has a different method, so I hope I did this correctly.