the Crissy Snow top

I could also call this top "Here Comes Some Cleavage."


A while back I spent an entire evening scouring the vintage pattern offerings on Etsy and eBay, looking for something that I could make out of knit. My daily (non-working) uniform tends to be jeans or shorts and knit tops, but my sewing patterns were kind of lacking in the knit tops arena.

I came away from that with this beauty, Simplicity 7836, circa 1976. My initial plans were to make it into a mini-dress this summer.


Then I found a cute little pink and gray knit in the bargain section at Hancock's that totally reminded me of the whacky prints I find at Anthro, and I decided to make this pattern up in a top for my vacation next week.

As you can can't see, this top is awesome if you really like a looooow cut. Next time I'll bring the front up an inch, and probably the back too. I played with the idea of raising the shoulder seams, but I liked where the interesting yoke seaming hit and didn't want that any higher. So, cleavage it is. {Please excuse rumpled appearance. Spent the evening with my boys in the Chick-Fil-A playzone.}


The pattern was a size 12, which is at least one size smaller than what I normally cut, but considering knits in the seventies didn't stretch too far, I thought it would be ok. It fits remarkably well in the shoulders/bust area, just a small amount of gaping in the back that I could fix by using some clear elastic in the seam allowance. Luckily the fit is so good when I bend over there is no flashing.


I ommitted the center back zipper and cut it on the fold instead. Also, I wanted a little bit of fullness in the back as well as the front, so I basically cut the bottom skirt as a big square, and gathered the center section a little to match the back yoke.


I think it's actually kinda cute, and fairly current-looking. Either that, or I've totally gone off the vintage-pattern deep end. I hope not, I have a second vintage seventies pattern on the work table now and just inherited a box of kicky patterns from my mother-in-law. Yeehaw!