Sewing Stripes, Stripes, and More Stripes

I've completed several projects in the last couple weeks. Hacking away at that fabric stash to make room for bigger and better things! This brown and gold striped knit is lovely. And I used all my creative problem solving powers to make two tops out of it!

The Batwing Top

This was taken in my sister's mirror since I threw away half the things in my room including my dresser and the mirror along with it! I'm not sure how to style this top, yet. With jeans, of course. I wore it one day with light khaki twill crops and gold gladiator sandals.

Side view on the dress form. I drafted the pattern for this top, basing it off of a top I saw at the store which I really liked except for the too-big neckline. There are only 4 pieces- front, back, and two gussets under the arm. The ruffles are just an extension of the front and back. They're widest at the top and taper down to nothing at the hip, just about an inch from the hem.

This is my room in the midst of rearranging furniture and awaiting new fixtures for the room! I feel like I'm moving. Every time I do my hair in the morning, I have to rummage around for my stuff in a plastic bin on the floor.

Things I learned from making this batwing top:

• You can use plum colored thread on a brown and gold top, even though there is a lot of top stitching. It's different if you actually peer at it closely, but it looks good anyway. Why buy more thread when what you have will do?
• If you decide that you want to cover your shoulders a little more after you've completed the top, just use a zigzag to hold the two juxtaposed pieces together. I kinda wish I'd zigzagged all over these seams.
• You can try to leave the neckline unfinished, but it will eventually roll. (I was lazy, and I tried.) To finish all the raw edges on the neckline and the ruffles, I folded the edge under 1/4" (single-fold, not doubled over) and stitched it down with a narrow zigzag (set on 1mm)
• You need to stretch knit fabric as you sew with the zigzag on my machine. The tension turned out much better on this product than on the flyaway I did recently. I don't have to be careful at all when I pull this shirt on and off or move around, because I gave it that stretch.

Dolman sleeve top

I designed this top to be most flattering on my pear-shaped figure. A horizontal stripe on a dolman sleeve top usually means that the stripes start turning downward on the shoulders, which on broad-shouldered women is really flattering, visually cutting off their shoulders. On me, it practically eliminates my shoulders altogether. I like the horizontal stripes in the center of the shirt, so I added style lines, and cut out my fabric in two different directions. Instread of turning down at the shoulder, the stripes turn out. Voila, instant shoulders!

I'm loving it. The cut, plus the stripes, plus the color, looks so eighties. But I'm still loving it. It also looks sort of athletic. I'm picturing it with tracksuit-inspired drawstring pants and wedge sneakers (neither of which do I have nor do I plan to buy) or tweed crops with a racing stripe down the side (which I have actually seen and might buy if the colors look right together.)

I didn't design this pattern entirely on my own. I started with this McCall's pattern in size Medium; raised and slightly broadened the neckline; raised the hem about 4 inches; added style lines; cut it out and let the pieces hang so that they get any wonky stretching out of the way; sewed it up and found it to be too baggy; trimmed off a total of 3 inches all the way around the circumference (I was able to do that without interfering with the sleeves, thanks to my style lines); removed two inches altogether from each sleeve (from the bottom only! If you do this, you don't want to remove anything from the top or you won't be able to raise your arm very high, and you'll cut off your shoulder!); sewed it up again, and it was perfect! It's so odd. Based on my measurements I really should be a medium, but clearly I'm not. Ai, ai, ai, this is why I don't use commercial patterns; so much trouble.

Asymmetrical peplum top

I thought I would like this top more than I do. It reminds me of an ice skater's dress, and I can't decide whether that's a good thing or not. My sister Kayley loves it for that very reason. She is a ballet dancer, and it's very much like her. I like the tarzan neckline with a wide strap covering the other shoulder, the alternating diagonal lines, and even the peplum, but all together? I just don't know. I wanted to make something like this for a while though, and I'm glad I did it.