The lovely Suzy from @sewing_in_spain on Instagram suggested I make a Matchy Matchy Sewing club Collage Gather Top to use some of my smaller pieces of fabric. I wasn’t certain how it would be on my body, but I actually love it, so thank you Suzy!

I’ve already blogged a couple of pairs of trousers made from tablecloths donated to me, so I won’t repeat the story (Gizeh trousers and pink play pants), except that I cut the stains out of some of the tablecloths, making tea towels, but also dyeing some of the bigger pieces red. I also did a bit of shibori folding, which was perfect for this top.

The top is described as “
The Collage Gather Top is a classic box top with a twist. Designed to be sewn as a patchwork or with a single fabric, it is easily customizable and comes together quickly. This versatile top is slightly cropped, hitting just below the natural waist, with gathered side panels and 2 sleeve views. View A is a simple cuff sleeve. View B has a 3/4 length drop shoulder gathered sleeve finished with a sleeve band.”

I made View A as summer is nearly here.

The pattern is made up of several different pieces making it easy to use the different fabrics I had. I added 10cms to the length as I knew a cropped version would look terrible on me, and also worried that I’d look a bit second trimester with all those gathers, and the longer length reduced this effect.

And here it is with the pink Stokx Play Pants.

The back view probably gives a better idea of the shibori pieces and their placement.

It amazes me that I can wear what is essentially a red top with pink trousers, but the trousers were dyed in the leftover dye from the top, so I guess they are going to tone well.

The front and back panels are red, and the top panels, front and back were tightly pleated fabric, as were the sleeve cuffs. The gathered body was a much larger piece of fabric which I pleated rather hurriedly and then the bundle fell apart as I was removing it so the white is a little bit pink. You can see that the squares are bigger too as I made the pleats wider. Here I am removing one of the bundles from the dye.

The miracle is that I wore gloves, at least part of the time. Miss G was very taken with my pink hands at one point.

I do like this photo of me strolling through the forest in the outfit.

This photo gives you a hint of how the front can stick out. I am alert to it though!

A slightly better pressed view of the top. If I make the top again I will scoop out the front neckline a little. I have a pin head, but it’s still hard to get off – my ears get in the way!

Of course I then had to try it with my white Fibremood Gizeh pants. I’m still quite keen on these, but am trying to work out how to fix the bagginess at the back.

These three garments were all made from SiL’s grandmother’s stash and I think they are all tablecloths, but I can’t be quite sure now. Anyway, they’ve left the stash!

and finally a very poor seated photo. The sun was in a very bad position so my apologies, but I wasn’t going to take another one.

As the weather warms up I’m really enjoying wearing this top and feel that I might make another one or two at some point. In the meantime I wonder if I need some red trousers…?

Finishing up with the girls playing, or rather Miss G trying to pick up E, which she knows she’s not allowed to do. We were having a tea party and I was trying to catch her calling her baby “sweetheart” and “darling”, it’s so cute!