Finished: Style 4092, zooming out of 1985!

Having managed to combine daylight hours with the presence of my dear friend, the Pixographer, I present to you photos of the humble, mustard coloured, handsewn top!

I am super pleased with how this turned out! This project was born when an old faithful set of sheets I had wore out. The fitted sheet tore right down the middle! I was going to salvage that fabric, when I realised it was super faded from being on the (usually unmade) bed right beside sunny windows. The flat sheet, on the other hand, was in pristine condition, having spent most of its life balled up on the floor. The collar fabric is from a curtain found at my local savers. I was careful to choose something that was unbleached, rather than bright white, as I thought it would sit nicely against the sort of dirty mustard colour of the main fabric.

The shorts pattern on the left is my next project. I picked it up on an earlier Savers shopping trip, and my first thought was "Boo, I wish that top on the left was also included in the pattern". When I got home I went trawling though a bag of tragic 80s patterns I have, and found a near match!  It's nearly identical, except not a midriff.  No complaints there! Honestly, I would never have looked twice at this pattern otherwise. I mean, horrors, the styling!  I literally look at this envelope and can see nothing but the hair... the eyes... the makeup... even the earrings have an unsettling effect on me. So, I did what I usually do in such a situation:

Ahh, that's better. Now I actually wanted to make this top! As it came together I almost regretted the decision to visit the often dodgy land of the 80s. Readers, before the collar went on this top totally. Looked like. Hospital scrubs. All came out in the end though, thankfully, because.. I don't want no scrubs x.x

Hmmm... Nice and smooth in front, wrinkly mess in the back. Note to Pixie: learn the sway-back adjustment, STAT.  On alterations, what I did do was to slash and add inches widthways to get to my bust measurement. Because the sleeves are in one with the front, this actually makes them longer.  Bonus!  I then added more inches at the sides to get to my hip measurement, tapering from the waistline. I actually went back and added another half inch there after tissue-fitting, because it still looked like it was going to be tight across the front hem.  On the hanger, you can see how dramatically the bottom flares out, but I don't think it's terribly obvious when worn.  Despite the fitting issues in back, I think I will still wear this a lot.  It's no worse than the RTW garments I already own. 

Now, I hope y'all don't mind if I get spammy with some construction pics! My hand sewing is by no means perfect, but this all wound up looking neater than I expected, and I'm quite proud!

You can see the flared-ness on the left;  on the right, hand overcasting on the shoulder seams. 

Left, side seams, overcast as one because I say noooo to doing that twice;  right, sleeve hem :)

Left, back facing.  I had to mark it - you can see it faintly - because the pattern is so similar in front and back!  I must find something to make tags with.  Right:  underneath the neck facing!  After I graded my seam allowances under the facing, I decided to turn the top one under before understitching.  I don't know if it makes it sit any better, but it did save me having to overcast another raw edge, hah.  New rule though:  no more cutting notches into seam allowances.  Look how messy those nicks look! 

So, that's it!  The shorts to go with these are coming along nicely - soon I will be in summer separate heaven!