Spring Top #3

I finished my third entry for the Spring Top Week contest over at Made by Rae. It's a skinny little cotton tank from a pattern in my Sweet Dress Recipe Japanese sewing book. They picture it as a tank and also as a dress.

I wear tops like this a lot in the summer as it is very hot here in St. Louis in July and August. Very hot. 110 with lots of humidity hot. Africa hot.


Unfortunately, the day I took these pictures it was really super cold and really really sunny. So they're not the easiest to see, right? I know, I know, I need a photography lesson. I don't have time for another hobby.

I laid it on a posterboard in my kitchen and took some unsunny pictures, too.


I love it for so many reasons, but one of them is that I was able to use up the last of my Katie Jump Rope from my stash! I really am growing to like Denyse Schmidt's prints for clothing more and more. They kind of remind me of a modern take on Liberty and the fabric quality is phenomenal.


Love love love it. Don't even care if nobody else does, I love it that much.

If you decide to make it, or something like it, here are some tips. The pattern comes in two sizes - 9 and 11. I still haven't found any sort of guide on what those two sizes mean, so I cut the size 11 with about a half-inch seam allowance. I ended up having a little extra fabric in girth so I pulled it in from the center back when I turned for the button plackets.


It also appeared to call for double-fold bias tape as the trim. Can I tell you how extremely thin double-fold tape is? And how hard it is to work with that? It's very unforgiving. There were quite a few spots where the fabric didn't catch under the stitches and I had to go back and re-do it.


I'm considering making the sundress version of this pattern and trying a wider bias trim to see how it goes?

Other than that it was super simple. I guessed that they called for gathers under the bust, so I put two rows in and then sewed the bias trim on top of them. The little buttons on the front are decorative, the back is functional but you can pull it over your head easily.

On to my next project. What is it again?