Chiffon top

Here's my first make from the new fabric stash: a sleeveless chiffon top.

The fabric is from Clothspot, the pattern from Burda.  Both are detailed in my earlier post.  The camisole is not part of the top.

As I said earlier, I don't really think my skills are up to working with chiffon but it has come out better than I expected.  It is a very forgiving style: loose, gathered and flowy.  I really like the style, I love the gathers at the neckline, and the turtleneck shows off the chiffon nicely.  I wore it to work and then out that evening - I got compliments both times!  

I resized the waist for my own measurements but, as a note for next time, I should have left everything as a size 12. Cutting out was an absolute pain, the fabric moved if you breathed on it, but the rows of flowers were extremely useful and served as a guide to make sure it was straight before I cut.  Thank goodness for my rotary cutter, it really proved its worth with this project.

For the sides and shoulders, I did French seams at 1.5cm width, I wasn't up for trying anything smaller.  If I was really keen, I could hand stitch each seam in half again (but I wasn't).  I set my machine tension to almost zero but the seams still gathered.  I didn't backstitch the ends so I smoothed out the gathers then tied off the ends.  I didn't follow the pattern instructions for the sleeve hems (zig zag finish), I did a sort of rolled hem: stitch one row near edge, fold in, stitch a second row on top, fold in, stitch a third row.  The great part about the chiffon is that I could stitch with the right side up and get a nice seam finish on the right side.  My bobbin thread never looks as nice as the top thread.

Total cost: £7.64
Fabric: £4.25
Shipping allocation: £1.85
Pattern (1/3 allocation w shipping): £1.54

PS: Apologies to Burda for my comments about the missing size guide and pattern layout.  I found both in the pattern sheets.  I had only looked in the instruction sheets.  I also easily found a Burda size guide online.