This is actually the first top I made this year, but it took a fair bit of effort. The Stokx Kris Top is cut on the bias and needs a fairly wide piece of fabric. I had so many pieces of fabric out of my stash but they were all 90cm wide which made cutting out difficult. Then there were the pieces that needed pattern matching or looked strange cut on the bias. I finally found a piece of silk that had diagonal lines, which meant that they would be straight when cut on the bias. I needed to cut out each piece separately as the fabric wasn’t wide enough to lay out all the pieces together, and the front, which I cut out first, looked really nice with a vertical stripe. I was busy congratulating myself and cut out the back when I realised that the two back pieces were cut out in the other direction so they had horizontal stripes which did not line up. Anywhere! That top is currently residing in the naughty corner while I decide what to do with it.

After that debacle I found a piece of plain linen, which was so easy to cut out – except I cut down the centre front fold. Don’t ask!! The rest of it was easy though. I sewed a tiny centre front seam and finished the top, only to find that the front and back of my sleeve seams weren’t the same length and the neckband didn’t sit flat. I am sure it was the way I cut out the top, perhaps it wasn’t properly on the bias, even though I spent ages on that aspect.

The sleeves were an easy fix, I just made them shorter, and I’ve added a thick piece of elastic to the back of the neckband, which looks much better. Oh Phew! I have my top, tried it on and my husband thought it looked like hospital scrubs! What? Yes, it did, I think the pale sage green has a definite medical professional vibe. It looked more washed out in real life.

I’m wearing it with my red Stokx Square pants in the hope that it will brighten it up, but I feel a bit drab..

I paired it with white Gizeh pants, but that’s worse I think

And it seems very long at the back.

Of course the simple solution is to dye it, and I had dye in my hand when I decided to jazz it up with some shibori dyeing.

It’s hard to shibori a completed garment. Because this one is cut on the bias I chose to stitch along the bias and I was quite pleased to have that front centre seam to guide my stitches – sometimes errors happen for a reason!

It finished up looking like this. In retrospect I don’t think I pulled the stitches in hard enough, but it was difficult as I had to navigate the seams.

I had three colours of dye out of the cupboard and in the end went with a rose pink colour. After all, pink is my new neutral!

When I unveiled it I was a little disappointed; I had made the mistake of bundling it too well and the pink hadn’t penetrated as much as I would have wished. I considered restitching following the original lines and having another go, but thought I would wear it first and see how I felt.

I took myself off to the shops pairing it with my pink Stokx Play Pants. I really like this combo.

The back turned out better than the front, it must have been on the outside.

and it looks good seated, but the shibori is quite subtle from a distance.

I didnt grade down the hips as I wasn’t sure what the impact of the bias would be, but I took the top in 5 cms on each side after it was made. The fit is so much better.

I wore it with some linen shorts and find that I am getting more comfortable with the length at the back, in fact it feels shorter since I dyed it!

It’s been pretty hot so I am having my cup of tea and reading my kindle whilst sitting with my feet in the pool. When I get really hot I just fling myself in.

I am already planning my next Kris top. It will have the chaos collar and I see that Lindy from Stokx Patterns has developed a raglan reach sleeve, so I shall be using one of those when it’s released. Now all I need to do is find the fabric…

I have also been making lots of skin care and house cleaning items, and bath bombs have featured fairly prominently. I decided to use an old starfish food mould and colour them with matcha green tea.

I have a little tester and here is a video of her tossing one into her bath. The girl has an arm on her, I would have preferred a more gentle approach but I guess that throw tested it properly!