Hello all!
Surprise surprise I’ve found myself with a fair bit of time on my hands so a lot more sewing has been happening! This top was supposed to be a quick easy project between sewing scrubs but ended up taking a wee bit more time and effort than anticipated. (Don’t they all!)
The design of the top was pretty much dictated by how much fabric I had. I found a remnant of this floral viscose which I reckon was about 40cm long in a John Lewis remnant bin about a year ago, loved the print and snapped it up. Originally it was going to be a cropped shirt, but after trying to imagine wearing it I decided absolutely not.
It turned out that there was only going to be enough fabric for the front and back of something, and that it was going to have to be cropped. I started looking at images of shirred crop tops but I was worried that the print would be lost if it was all shirred up. After pondering my options for a bit I decided that the best way forward would to be to do a normal darted front bodice using my block, and adapting the my back bodice block to have a shirred back so I could get it on and off again easily without adding any fastenings.
I left the front bodice block pretty much as is, just squaring off the neckline with the centre front around mid armhole (I ended up changing the neckline later.) To work out how much fabric I wanted to be in the shirred back bodice I measured roughly around the shoulders to see how much ease I’d need to be able to get the top on and off over my shoulders. I then measured my front bodice (darts closed), subtracted that from my measurement, added a few cm and that was how wide my back piece needed to be. Cutting these 2 pieces out (both on the fold) used up pretty much all of the width of my fabric. I used the scraps to cut out some bias binding for the armholes and rectangles for the straps.
When it came to construction I essentially finished both pieces separately and the side seams were the second to last thing to do, the last being adding the straps. First step was sewing the front darts, then finishing the armholes separately with bias binding. Then the necklines and hems were finished by turning under twice and topstitching. Then it was time to shirr the back bodice. I increased the tension and the stitch length on my machine, hand wound my bobbin with shirring elastic and then I was good to go. I made sure to reverse stitch at the beginning and end of each row so that the elastic didn’t escape when stretched. Steaming the piece at the end made all of the difference as the elastic pings back into shape and tightens everything up a bit.
When the back piece was shirred it was time to sew both pieces together at the side seams, sew little rouleau loop straps, pin them on and try the top on to see how it fits. Unfortunately it wasn’t great, but I decided to persevere and try and fix it up the best I could. My main issues were as follows: The neckline was too wide, the armholes were too high and digging into my skin, the hem was too long, the straps needed lengthening and the side seams needed taking in.
The quickest things to fix were the side seams and the hem. The armholes I ended up doing a couple of times to try and get them right. First I unpicked the bias binding and brought it further towards the centre front in an effort to make the neckline less wide and to make the armhole less diggy-inny. This wasn’t the greatest fix, the armhole was still uncomfortable and I decided that the neckline would look a thousand times better if it was lightly scooped. So, I took off all of the bias binding, cut the armholes down and cut the neckline to make it slightly scooped, then rebound the edges as best I could. This was a thousand times better, although I probably could have lowered the armholes even more. I recut longer straps and pinned them on before hand stitching them down exactly where I wanted them.
I’m really glad that I took the time to make something that’s actually comfy to wear and it’s going to be super easy to make another one because now I have exactly the right measurements! My biggest change for next time would be to straighten off the top of the back bodice just below the armhole. I think that would look a lot neater. I do love the final product and I think it does a great job of making an outfit with jeans just a little more exciting.
Thank you for reading!
Lauren