Watercolour silk Poppy top

Wow. I finally got this top made! I have been hoarding this fabric ever since I bought it. It is, by quite some order of magnitude, the most expensive fabric I have ever bought. I fell in love with it, in Vancouver, two summers ago and I had to have it. But only one metre.

In truth, I think I like having the fabric more than I like having the top. I love the colours and the paint swirls through it. I think it is gorgeous. But it doesn't really suit me when worn. The large scale of the pattern shows up all the colours together when flat, but when it is made up, this effect is lost. I got the print placement wrong too. The deeper colours, especially the small section of black suits me best and I didn't manage to get this near my face. Instead, I have this nothing section up near my face. The colours in it are absolutely beautiful, but they blend away when worn. I was quite limited with placement options after every placement ended in having one of those purple circles or pink flowers right in the middle of my stomach. Not pretty.

With only one metre, it was going to have to be a top. I decided on making a top by using the bodice from the Sew Over It Poppy Playsuit pattern. I got this from Simply Sewing magazine, back before I even really knew much about Sew Over It. Now, I am a big fan of Lisa's and think her patterns are really lovely. Still, I'm unlikely to ever make a playsuit for me to wear. The girls, maybe. But I kept the pattern anyway.

It won because it has so few seams, with none at all in the front. Not even darts. I knew I wouldn't be able to turn out a beautifully finished work, so I wanted to hide this as much as possible with no seams and all about the fabric. I skipped the turn up cuffs and the centre back seam. The neckline is open enough that I can pull it over my head fine. I made the 10/12 size and I didn't bother with the short waist or the sway back adjustment because I was making a loose, flowy top. If I was to make this again, I would go down a size, it is just a bit too loose for my taste.

I treated the whole cutting out very carefully. I traced the pattern out on to newspaper so that I could cut it flat. I added the hemline from the Sew Over It Molly Top. With the whole thing laid out flat, I felt much better about cutting out. I sacrificed the kitchen table to cut out without moving my cutting mat around underneath. Good thing we haven't upgraded it. It's pretty scuffed already, and it cost only about twice as much as the fabric. The peace of mind about moving the fabric around was worth it.

Once I had it cut out, it was pretty quick to sew up. I did French seams for the shoulder seams and side seams and rolled cuffs for the arms and hem. There is a facing around the neckline. I rolled the hem of the facing, but it was way to wavy, so I overlocked it in the end. It worked much better. I did topstitch the facing down to the neckline. I felt really, really bad topstitching silk. But it improved how the facing sat so it does look better. I had a 70 needle, so I used that. There are small puncture marks in the fabric, but no pulls. 

The finishes are not marvellous. There is a lot of pulling around the neckline and the hems are neither smooth, nor fluted. Just wonky. But it is wearable, and now that I have seen the photos, I like it better than this morning.

Costs
 Fabric: 1m (Fabricana) £27
 Pattern: Poppy Playsuit (Simply Sewing Mag) £1
 Notions: no new.
Total: £28