Hello all!

Welcome to another one of my Me Made May makes. It’s quite a boring one I’m afraid, with minimal drama. The plan was to use the pattern I made for my shirred back crop top in April as a base and add some shorts on to make it a playsuit.

The fabric is a floral viscose left over from a testing the Closet Case Patterns Fiore skirt. It’s from one of the shops on Goldhawk road and was £10 for 2 metres! Bargain. It’s actually washed and worn very well so far., considering the price.

I used the pattern that I made for the crop top, lowering the neckline, widening the armhole and taking in the side seams. I then used my shorts pattern, adding 1.5cm to the crotch to give me a bit of wiggle room as it’s a playsuit. I slashed and spread the back waist of my shorts pattern to match the width of my pre-shirred panel so they would match nicely together. and gather up together.

I think it took a morning to sew up, and came together pretty nicely. The neckline and armholes are finished with bias binding which is topstitched into place. The armhole binding extends into the straps which makes it nice and seamless. The viscose shirred beautifully! It’s so important to backstitch well at the end of each line so it all stays nice and gathered.

Overall, it was a great further exploration of this pattern, and I got slightly closer to getting it just right. In fact, I’ve already made a third version which is almost perfect! Next time I think I’d put a side panel on the back bodice with the shirring in the middle because I’m not too much of a fan of seeing the shirring from the side. Although I do wonder if i’ll be able to get it on and off with the smaller panel of shirring. I guess there’s only one way to find out!

Thank you for reading!

Lauren xx