And back to normal blog programming! My goodness, it feels like it’s been forever… not to mention I’ve had a seriously sloooow start in getting back to normal sewing. I’m enjoying taking things at a more relaxing, non pressured pace.

I’ve always browsed the Style Arc website and been pleasantly surprised at the awesome range of patterns – especially because they’re all things you’d expect to see in a clothes shop. Wonderfully everyday style stuff. But nothing had quite pushed me over the point to make a purchase… until I saw the Cyd Top.

The (woven!!) style lines are utterly fabulous, and it was kinda awesome to buy a pattern online that was both in Aussie dollars AND sizing.

Another love of mine is an Aussie clothing company called Zimmermann – I’ve watched their collections evolve over the years since they came about as a swimwear brand and I’ve always seen many things I’ve loved.

Also, I would probably be willing to commit acts of physical violence to get my hands on their fabrics. (Not really).

I was in one of their shops late last year because that collection was the first that they’ve expanded their swimwear to fit C/D cup sizes (took them bloody long enough). I of course bought some new bathers because we were about to head to the Philippines for a week of beach R&R with friends on Boracay Island (which was amazing).

Also, whilst in there I noticed they had their scarves on sale, so I bought three with the idea of including the fabric in a top of some kind.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this pattern – it’s a totally new to me company. The pattern was well marked up, with both the seam lines AND the seam allowance lines marked, and match points that made perfect sense in their placement. No bust point or waist/hip point marker though.

I’m a sucker for ‘interesting design lines’, so when I saw those exact words printed on the line drawing, I laughed out loud!

Style Arc’s are single size patterns – I bought the size that corresponds to the largest part of my body – the shoulders. That was a size 12. It was true to size, and accordingly I did end up taking it in at the waist as from that point downwards I match the size 10 measurements there.

I glanced over the instructions and they certainly meet their reputation of being pretty lousy, but I never intended to use them anyway. They did have a handy picture of what the inside seams of the top front looks like, which does help with construction. If you’ve made a princess seam top with facings before and you lay the pattern pieces flat in order, it’s quite simple to see what the construction process should be otherwise.

Even once I’d unpicked the seams of my scarves, I didn’t quite have quite enough length to get the full thing cut from the floral fabric. So after I’d muslined it, I played around with some curvy lines to make it a bit more interesting and simultaneously take care of the fabric shortage.

Thank you, harsh overcast winter lighting, for making the smallest of creases incredibly obvious.

You’ll note not a single piece is in that scarf fabric from top to bottom! This required a bit more work in ‘walking the seam lines’, prep and sewing to make sure everything would match up, but it was totally worth it. Of course, I had zero space to play with pattern matching, so getting the same print on two of the back pieces kinda sucked.

A very good friend of my gifted me some 30 year old cream crepe de chine, which was intended for lining my Wedding Dress. For various reasons I didn’t end up lining that, so this is it both providing the lining, the contrast and the underlining for this top – the scarf fabric is quite sheer.

And that’s where it got a little tricky. That crepe is utterly see through, so I decided to line just the white parts. Lining the entire top would have been possible but tricky due to the shapes of the pleats and flounces at the front, but what I should have done is a full lining a the back and a top-half lining at the front. I’d already cutout the pieces when I realized this, so the inside of the top is over-engineered in the extreme.

It looks pretty, though. And I did enjoy all the fell stitching.

Were it not for the sheer crepe, I would have just stuck with the facings (or better yet, drafted an all in one facing). I used bias to finish the section of the armscye that didn’t have the cap sleeve sewn to it.

During muslin stage I moved the centre back zip to be a side zip, mostly because it’s just easier to get dressed that way. That doesn’t work well at all because of the fabric volume at the hem, so it was back in the centre back seam for the final version! This is quite possibly the best invisible zip I’ve ever done.

I do really love this top, and how flouncy it is depends on the fabric you sew it with. Sewing with a cotton twill like Novita did – you get wonderful body. My fabrics are softer, so the flounce is less pronounced. I did also take them in a little, mainly to account for the fact that I’m a 10 at the hips and a 12 up top. Proportion and all that jazz.

The only thing I think one should be aware of is that the little cap sleeve style doesn’t provide much in the way of forward arm movement. I’ll be putting on shoes and socks before zipping this top up. Just a side effect of the style!

I will absolutely be making another of these – I’m currently on the hunt for the right kind of organza so I can recreate this seriously gorgeous Lela Rose dress (2013 Fall Collection) in top form…

Perfect pattern match to designer knock-off, yes?

Until soon!