I was sort of kinda maybe definitely getting stuck with my SWAP jackets. The muslins are cut and waiting to be sewn and fitted (this is the nightmare part for me, especially since I don’t have a sewing partner to help me pin and mark and I only have so much patience to guide DH through the process, although he is so willing to learn and help and work with me – God bless him!) and I’m not really looking forward to the challenge or the process, so instead of not sewing anything at all until I mentally go through the toile/fitting stages, I thought I’d jump in and sew up a bunch of tops.  And I’m glad I did!  This is the first of three.  I initially bought this stylized dotty knit after reading about Winnie’s Polka Dot Frock Fest, hoping to sew something dotty, although not the New Look dress Winnie was using for her sewalong.

The other piece of the puzzle that’s been mulling around in the back of my mind is the Burda 2013 Challenge.  Maria over at La Inglesita posted back in December about her goal to sew at least one garment from each issue of Burda for 2013 since those issues often sit on our shelves and don’t get traced and sewn up into wearable 3D items.  I don’t know about you, but often I’ll read and re-read a Burda issue, earmark one or several things and mentally sew them up in that particular fabric from my stash.  Heck, I’ll even mentally wear them, but it gets left behind in ISL (Imaginary Sewing Land) for some weird reason. Melissa at Fehr Trade set herself a similar challenge last year. It’s a nice idea and perhaps the impetus that I need to sew up the things that catch my eye in my Burda subscription, so I thought I’d casually join along.

Anyway, these two random pieces melded into a very happy top! I had only about 30 inches of the knit, and after draping it on Ancient Annie, and looking at it for a couple of days, decided I really wanted the cowl neck even though I already have 2 others in my life.  (As an aside, I wonder when cowl necklines will be so ridiculously passé that I won’t want to wear them anymore…..)

It’s an easy peasy sew from Burda’s January 2013 issue (#123A).  The knit is a lovely rayon and it’s got every single shade of every colour in my wardrobe.  It’s definitely going to be a favourite top because it coordinates with everything!  I had to put in a CB seam because I wanted the dark dots to sit around my hips, and there were one two rows of dark dots and not enough width in the fabric to accommodate both front and back pieces laid out in the same direction.That said, after it was almost finished I tried it on and realized that the band of dark dots did sit across my hips like I wanted it to, but above it were rows of very light dots that didn’t look so great pooling across my waistline.  So I cut about 4 inches of the light dots out and added a band across the bottom with the dark dots.  I cut the band about 2 inches smaller than my hip measurement, and 13 inches wide.  It’s seam up the CB and then folded in half, right sides together, and stitched to the bottom of the top.

I did do one of my cheat FBA’s on this top:  I shortened the back through the upper back (and by extension the drop shoulders which raised the armscye up to an appropriate level) and again at the waist for a total of 2″.  Then I shortened the front through the sleeve so that my sleeves would be the same length, but darted it out to the CF which increased the width of the cowl, but allowed for the extra length and width required.  I thought it would work well since it’s a cowl neck anyways, and if it’s got 2 inches more fabric in the drape, it wouldn’t hurt the design any.  I’m happy with it.  Each FBA I do is an experiment.  I supposed if I had a block it would lose the experimental feel to it, but I like tackling each piece at a time.  It slows me down and I always end up getting frustrated learning something new in the process. HA!

Oh, and d’ya like my plywood environment?  This is what my kitchen looks like now.  And I have a confession to make:  in a not-so-nice I’m-going-to-make-my-point sorta way, I decided to keep a photoblog going of the transformation of the space.  Now, I know DH doesn’t read my sewing blog, so I can freely tell you that he and I don’t see eye to eye on how to go about this.  I’d rather have hired it out to a designer and contractor, but he wants to save moula forever and do the job himself.  Can you smell the trouble?

Up next: my optical illusion tee!