Blast from the Past

For months, Zara has been at me to make her a top.
She saw it somewhere.
Maybe Maddie was wearing it? Or a lady at the shops?
Anyway, it was linen, cream coloured, had a chunky exposed zipper, short sleeves and a cropped length.
May I make it?
Please?

I have learned the hard way not to assume with teenagers. Of course I could make it, but find a me pattern.

She came up with this.

Mmm, that was not expected.
(I made this up in silver Thai silk to wear to a B&S Ball around 1993).
I thought a muslin may be wise.

I have a roll of calico I use for muslin making. I can write on it and it is quite stable to handle.
Seams on the right side make for easy adjustment.
Only one sleeve is needed.
I left off the darts to create the cropped boxy style Zara was requesting.
The sleeve required a lot of tweaking.
I pinched a lot of the fullness out and shortened it to a cap sleeve style.

The centre seam gave me the opportunity to get a lovely fit.
It ended up looking quite an odd pattern shape.
Zara chose some lovely nubbly linen from my stash. I sort of wanted to keep it for myself.
We looked at lining with Bemsilk and voile but then found the scantest piece of silk satin in ivory.
Perfect!

I hand sewed all the hems, with the nature of the nubbly linen they were quite invisible.

Speaking of nubbly linen, it frays like the billy-o.
Sewing for the Twins is opening up the world of more tailored sewing. During my research on coat sewing, I read the tip of clipping the seams at alternating increments to reduce bulk and create ease with out risk of seam weakening.
Just the job!

Zara was super keen for an exposed zipper.
As we were using very luxe fabric I was not.
I was pretty sure it would date badly.
We compromised, exposed teeth not tape.
Another sewing tip, sew the zipper from the bottom up, on each side, to reduce twisting.
And baste first, basting is your friend.

 There was a lot of hand sewing on this one.
I like to carefully catch my facings to my lining.

I hand sewed the sleeve lining to the sleeve edge as well.

There you have it, a very grownup shell top.

With a thoroughly modern twist.

Lined with silk satin.
I used hemming tape to avoid bulk.

I would have liked to make a zipper guard but Zara was adamant she didn't want one.
I hope it doesn't scratch her.....

She insists it doesn't.

A boxy cropped shell top.

Luxurious and decadent in silk and linen.

Evidently it feels like heaven to wear.

For my sweet angel.

xx N