New Look 6356 Top - A Lace and Floral Concoction.

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Or the fabric that my daughter stole.
I suppose it is only fair. After all I turned her old bedroom wardrobe into my stash storage when she left home AND she did buy the fabric in the first place AND I have sewn her two sisters a top each this year .
Well she has obviously been rumaging through my fabric on one of her trips home and spotted some left over lace from her youngest sisters school sewing project ( a lovely Simplicity Cynthia Rowley pleated dress )and thought to put them together.
I think the combination works really well - a Japanese cotton voile with a vague splotchy floral which peeks through the black lace on the sleeves and shoulders .

I used New Look 6356 dated 2004  , the same pattern for my youngest DD`s lace top and amazingly is still available in the current catalogues. It is a very basic darted  top for wovens with various necklines. And luckily all the hard work I did in fitting her paid off because my eldest DD is very similar to her so all I had to do was slightly lengthen the top and  sew  slightly smaller side seams.

  The only changes I made in construction of this top was to eliminate the facings and use bias binding at the neckline and instead of using a zip at the back I used a button and buttonloop .I hand stitched the lace to the sleeves and played around with the lace placement on the front bodice until it looked fairly symmetrical( I sewed the darts before adding the lace )  . We wanted to add lace to the back shoulders as well but there just was not enough. After handstitching the lace the top was a breeze to sew - shoulder seams, add the sleeves, side seams, centre back seam , hems , add a button and it is done.

I think I might need to start getting my daughters to give me some fashion/ sewing advice !
Happy Sewing Janine.

Simplicity 5552 - My Favourite Pattern ? .

Simplicity 5552. Possibly maybe this might be my favourite pattern if I was forced to choose - We will kill your dog ,pull out your eyeballs and confiscate your hidden chai latte cache  if you do not choose your favourite pattern !
I have been admiring the Wiksten Tova pattern but then realized  this simplicity was very similar .
I have made this five times now - twice for Mum and this version is replacing my first version made out of wrinkled white cheesecloth with lace. I wore that far longer than I should have - for seven years ! -but I loved it so much.

This is made out of a self patterned stripey white cotton from the op shop again ( I do sometimes buy new fabric -lol. ) I changed the pattern around  a little. I added a button placket in the front yoke,  slightly widened the ends of the  sleeves and added a band to bind them instead of just using elastic. I used white embroidery thread and using a fancy stitch included in my sewing machine I embroidered around the edges of the yoke. This covered the seams that showed through the white fabric, anchored them down and added an  interesting touch

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Close up of the embroidery stitch and front yoke. 

Simplicity 5552, dated 2003. 

I have not yet finished with this pattern. I can imagine a version with a colourful embroidered yoke, a version with tone on tone embroidery, using lace for the yoke and also using a contrasting fabric for the yoke and sleeves as shown in the middle version B above. 

I have also sewed the version of this pattern with the square neckline  out of yoryu georgette . This was made in 2005  and I take this away on just about every holiday I go on because the fabric does not need ironing , feels dry almost as soon as it comes out of the washing machine and I love the colours and pattern.

 I actually made the white  shirt a few months ago and am kind of trying to catch up with blogging. I have finished sewing a dress and couple of shirts as well but I need to bribe my photographers when they are in helpful moods. Until then. Cheers and happy sewing.

PS- what is your favourite sewing pattern ?