The Tops of November ...

With Saturday spent making a family lunch, I've only had one day of sewing this weekend. I had planned three tops, but I've only managed two as my indecisiveness stopped me from cutting out. The first on is KS3668 made from a cotton with spots of orange, tan and chocolate brown, although it's hard to tell from the picture. I bought this fabric to go with my choc vanilla orange wardrobe earlier in the year. When I had the fabric laid out I very nearly made the version with the sleeves, but this is definitely a cool summer cotton and needs to be sleeveless. I haven't sewn the buttons on or pressed it properly, but I quite like this so far. I lengthened it a little, but next time I will take it back to the pattern length.

Next up is a blouse I made from a vintage McCalls pattern I bought at the op shop a while ago. I bought this fabric to co-orodinate with my June Capsule but never got around to actually making it.I've always wanted a floaty tie neck blouse and I made this straight out of the envelope. The pattern says size 12 with a 34" bust, which has worked out perfectly. It's dated 1980, but it's pretty timeless and I'm sure I will use it again. The only thing wrong with this pattern was the instructions. It's a Palmer and Pletsch with instructions for making sewing quicker and easier (apparently). Instead of sewing in the order I normally would sew a blouse, it has you do a bunch of things at the same time so you press them all at once, therefore minimising the amount of time you are up and down to the ironing board. Jumping from one section to another was confusing. When it started talking about sewing the cuff on the sleeve at the same time as sewing the collar, I put the instructions aside and made it up, which resulted in my tie being left off rather than stitched on with the collar. Ah well, a separate scarf/tie might come in useful. I haven't decided buttons for this yet, so the buttonholes aren't done, but it fits well and I like the way this looks on.I've got a few other tops planned for the rest of the week, so I'm back to the cutting table.