Two white tops and a giveaway

What a weekend. I managed to do 99% of the childcare and still whip up two white tops.

For some reason, I lost my sanity and signed up for Pattern Review's mini-wardrobe contest in March. March is set to be the worst month of the year for me, schedule-wise, so why not add to it a self-imposed goal of sewing up five wearable garments at the same time??!!

You are starting to get a glimpse into the insanity, no? This also happens to be why we have two sons, not one, and why we have a giant brown one-year-old lab bounding around the house. But I digress.

The first white top I made is from Burda 7518. I'm taking my boys to Florida in April and my little mini-wardrobe is going to be a combination of workwear and warm-weather casual. This top is a little different, which is nice.


You can read the full pattern review here. I'm happy with the finished product and it went together quickly, always a plus. It's a little large across the shoulders and the cleavage factor is a little extreme. Burda sure likes their boobs. Other than that, it's a keeper.


Then I had the bright idea of making Burda 7379 out of white jersey. It's not a pattern drafted for knits, but that doesn't usually stop me. This time the results were eh. My full pattern review is here if you want to read it. I feel slightly shameful that I even posted a review without hemming the shirt, but I still have some fixing to do on it. Me and fixing don't go together so well, so I figured if I don't post the review now there's a very strong chance I never will.


One armhole is normal, and the armhole with the gigantic ruffle over it gets gathered. Apparently I either miscalculated my gathers (highly possible) or the jersey stretched out, or a cosmic shift occurred (probably one of my kids sitting under my sewing cabinet had something to do with it). Either way, that armhole gapes open quite dramatically. I plan on removing the bias binding and inserting some clear elastic into both armholes and neckline, finishing with a double-needle hem.

While I'm mulling over those fixes, I've already started on Burda 7498.


To celebrate something, I'm not sure what (maybe your patience in getting to the end of this post), I'm giving away eight backcopies of Sew Hip magazine from the UK. Numbers 9 through 16, chock-a-block with fun projects from quilting to garment sewing to crafty things like making stuffed animals and shoe decorations. If you want these lovelies, just enter a comment by Wednesday, March 9 at 5:00 p.m. CST and I'll announce the winner. I imagine if I have more than one entry I'll use random.org to choose the lucky winner.