I’ve long had a yen to make a Stokx patterns Coco top, loving the fact that it’s so versatile and has such interesting details and thanks to Lindy’s generosity, I’ve now made the first of many.

The top took me a little longer to make as I was unable to print the pattern at home. The poster function on my Adobe Acrobat has been disabled, which meant that I had to get to a copy shop, which took me a few days to organise.

I wanted to make a summer version of the top, and being mindful of the instructions that both sides of the fabric are visible, I chose a spotted silk I’ve had in my stash for years. I can’t remember where I bought it, but when I pre-washed it, the black dye ran into the cream, quite badly in places. So disappointing.

The fabric was also slightly off grain, which added to my woes. Do I keep the dots lined up or stick with the grain? I decided to stick with the grain, which made pattern matching more tricky and the dots aren’t straight down the front, but it’s not too obvious.

The pattern pieces are really interesting and I laid them on the fabric attempting to avoid the bad sections of black dye run. Of course I got no photos during the making progress, but am happy to show you the final product.

I didn’t pull the back in as I wanted to see how it would look loose. Quite good I think! The back is cut on the bias, but the regular nature of the dots means that you can’t see this.

It took me a while to get my head round doing the hem of the collar on the right side, which is counter-intuitive to me, and I nearly unpicked it thinking that I had done it incorrectly, but luckily I checked the instructions or I would have been very unhappy with myself. I love the shape of the collar and the silhouette of the blouse.

I used some fabric covered buttons I bought in a designer sale years ago.

As my big Bernina with the automatic buttonhole is languishing on the floor feeling unwell, I’m using my Bernina Record 830 with manual buttonholes, which I haven’t done in years. I was pleased to remember how, although it is pretty easy. I think they turned out better than the automatic ones!

I am playing around with coordinating garments. I quite like the white skirt, and black trousers will always look smart with it. I got a few photos when I was cutting my very first loofah off the vine.

I’ll just mention that I thought I would have so many loofahs and even more seeds, but I only got four from four vines – instead of the six to eight that my reading on the subject promised. The seed production is also poor. I’m leaving it to dry out and will show the results soon.

Some action shots with the loofah, just because I’m excited about it; I like how I caught a photo of it before it hit the ground when I dropped it – it looks as though it’s levitating.

I am looking at the shoulders and wondering whether I should go down a size and do a full bust adjustment? Or perhaps increase the size of the darts. It might just be the way I’m wearing it, after all, I have been gardening in it!

I wore the top for a catchup coffee with a friend. I didn’t get my usual action shot in our local town, so had to take them when I got home.

The trousers are self drafted and made from bengaline and I made my hat years ago in a raffia hat making class. I’m amazed it hasn’t fallen apart!

Having looked at these photos I decided to unpick the hem and redo it – for the third time! My first hem was a simple turned under hem, but I didn’t like it, so did as Lindy suggested and made bias binding, however, I think my overlocking gathered up a bit, probably from the unpicking and I wasn’t happy with it. I unpicked and resewed it all and am much happier with the results. I’m wearing it with shorts here as I’m still trying to find coordinating outfits, and I’m standing under a small palm with Nellie the sock monkey as I’m entering it in the Magamsewalong Jungle January challenge on IG.

I think it’s definitely too wide at the shoulders so I need to address this for the next one. It did occur to me that the fit might be better if I pull it in at the back. I shall experiment! Just for reference I made a size three bust grading down to somewhere between size one and two at the hips. I think I might try size two grading to size one at the hips.

Finally a cute photo of Miss G eating a choc-top at the theatre when we went to see The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I’m nursing Miss E, who stood on my lap and waved her arms the whole time. We don’t think she could see anything but she certainly enjoyed herself.