Butterick B6411 tested and perfected

When this Lisette Butterick knit dress pattern was first released I was all over it. I am such a fan of easy wearing, everyday knit dresses. Fun to sew and really nice to wear. Add in that I just can't help but accumulate great knit fabrics and it was going to have to happen...

With the pattern rolling round in my head I found myself wandering through the city, without my kids, on my way to lunch with my mother in law. It was birthday and I really did have to walk straight past Tessuti. Funny that. So I went in and found the perfect knit fabric. Did I say it was my birthday? :)

Anyway, I knew enough to sew a test run in something else first. I'd scored lots of fabric from my friends mum (thank you gifts here)  and included in there was this fabulous retro knit.

I was a bit on the fence about the print until I sewed up the dress and now I adore it. So much so that I wish I had spotted the problem with the pattern before I used this fabric...

So, the front view looks pretty damn good, I think. The dress is a simple front and back bodice cut on the fold. Then two front overlays are used to construct the neckline finish, basted around the armhole and gathered to the side seams. The waist line where the skirt attaches is unusually high, but since the overlay faux wrap is lower and right at the correct waist point it doesn't matter. But hang on, what happens when you turn around:

What is the back waist seam doing all the way up there? So yes, it's windy in these photos, but if anything that might be helping the look. It's a bit like having an empire, or maternity, level waistline, only back to front!

I was going to need to remedy that before cutting into my birthday fabric. But after wearing this dress a few times I don't care enough to not want to wear this one. After all, I never see myself from behind or even side on, and that crazy green colour just makes me happy!

I dug out the traced pattern interfacing for a knit dress that I made a few years back and that I love the fit of. It's actually a pattern for woven fabrics and turned out to work well in a knit without the side zip. I pinched the darts out of the pattern tracing and wouldn't you know it was exactly the width of the B6411 bodice, only about 3" longer.

So I traced the extra section from the woven pattern and added most of it to the bottom of the bodice of B6411 before cutting out my fabric. Looked like this:

That's the front bodice on the left and the back bodice on the right. They are the same width, so the additional wedge is basically the same front and back. The 2&1/2" additional length was chosen as that still gave me about 1/2" above the point where the overlay would attach on each side. I figured that would be enough to ensure that the waist seam was still covered by the wrapped overlays.

I liked the skirt hem length as it was, so I used the lengthen/shorten line on the skirt pattern piece to take that two and half inches back off. And then I was off and cutting.

This might just be my favourite dress ever now. The fabric is all kinds of me. Stripes, my sort of colours, and a lovely soft, drapey jersey but still with enough body not to feel clingy or skimpy.

I feel like my bodice changes did alter the way the overlay crosses over and how much of each side is visible, but logically I don't think it can have. All I've done is lowered the waistline closer to the point where the overlay finishes. I haven't actually changed the overlay, the amount it gathers or the heights at which it starts or stops.

I've seen only one or two other reviews of this pattern and there has been mention of the weirdly short bodice. Thankfully I can say that the fix really is as simple as adding length to the straight under bodice and there's no need to mess with the oddly shaped overlay at all. Easy!

And the new back view?

Much better.

A close up of my freshly sewn side seam went up on Instagram in a moment of self-trumpet-blowing, but here it is again in action in the breeze.

Other than the bodice length change I made no alterations to the pattern at all. I used the two rows of straight stitching sewing technique suggested by the pattern. I've done this before with knit dresses and it makes a nice change from overlocking. It worked fine for me for both dresses, BUT, a note of caution if you have boobs: By lengthening the bodice I have also narrowed the waistline. You can see from my pattern tracings that the bodice continued to taper. I didn't alter the skirt width, just gathered it slightly more.

The dress has no closures and is pulled on over the head. I suspect, with my altered version that if I had a big bust I might struggle to get the stitched waistline over my boobs without popping stitches. I wonder if that isn't the reason for the higher waistline after all. Solutions to that could be either to stitch the waistline with a zig zag, or more extensible stitching technique.

Or, possibly to ONLY lengthen the back bodice. There's no real need for the front bodice to be lengthened, and since the front waistline is not visible it wouldn't really matter if it didn't align with the back waistline. Staggering the seams would make it much easier to get on over an ample bosom. Anyway, not a problem for me so I'm speaking theoretically about something I know nothing of :)

I'm so happy to have freshened up my wardrobe of staple knit dresses. With tights, boots and a jacket these serve as everyday dresses and the green one has already been on the school bike commute and co-ordinated very nicely with my Breezer!

 

Instagram link

But at the park, in front of the toilet block, in a pair of heels, an everyday knit dress can look kinda fancy too! :)

Details:

Pattern: Lisette for Butterick B6411

Size: 14

Fabric: Mystery vintage knit from @topbikephysio 's mum. Striped jersey (not on website) from Tessuti

Alterations: None to muslin (green dress). Lengthened bodice as described for final version 

Pintucked Gallery Tunic for mum

This dress was a long time in the making, so I guess it's fitting that it has taken almost as long to get on the blog.

It was a bit like the sea wall that was holding the tide back. and once it was finished there was the mad flurry of easy(ish) sewing in May and June. So yeah, it was a bit of a beast to make, but the result is so perfect for my mum that it was absolutely worth it.

The long story (you knew there would be a long story, didn't you?) is this: About a year ago my mum tried on an off-white linen dress with pintucks, long sleeves and a mandarin collar. She liked it but it really didn't fit. It was very wide in the shoulders, it was too tight in the back and bust and then, when she told me the price I was adamant that she was not to buy it.

I could do better for a third of that price I boldly stated.

It was just at the time that the Liesl + Co Gallery Tunic and Dress pattern had been released. It ticked most of the boxes: Loose, tunic shape, mandarin collar, long sleeves. it was just all those pintucks had to come from somewhere.

Since my mum and I are roughly the same size across the shoulders I had the perfect excuse to try the pattern out for myself. She tried mine on and we noted that there was plenty of room in the body, the shoulders were fine, the sleeve length perfect, the pockets an inch too low and the dress length was longer than she wanted.

I went on and made a calico muslin as a test for some of the changes that would be necessary. Namely, leaving out the inverted box pleat at the back, and the placket pleat at the front, drafting to a length that was halfway between the tunic and the dress, and then adding all that pleated width at the front.

Then the pattern was sliced horizontally to create the front and back shoulder yokes. I had already determined that if all my pleating happened below the neckline I would only have to pleat straight down from a horizontal edge - much easier!

Once I knew it could work I set it aside for a few months and then completely forgot how on earth I could make the maths work out for all those pleats. I nutted it over so many times and kept getting slightly different answeres - the main problem being that I really didn't know exactly how deep I wanted the pleats to be, or how many, or over what area they should be spread.

So I did the obviously easier thing and pleated the fabric then cut the pattern piece. That irked me as it meant wasting a bit more fabric because the pleating was centered on the fabric fold, but this was definitely a point reached when scrooge-y cutting tendencies had to be set aside.

The front placket as per the pattern was dismissed as the resulting 1" deep pleat was unwanted. So I turned to a kid's pattern and used an extended length version of the placket from the Jump Rope Dress. In later email conversation with Liesl she has pooh-poohed that placket as being not her best work, but I think it's a fabulous bit of sewing instruction especially for those who have never sewn a placket before. I'm told the tower placket instructions on her new shirt pattern is the real deal!

The sage green/grey fabric came from The Cloth Shop. I suspect it's a cotton/linen blend and the cross-hatch weave effect is printed as the back of the fabric is a more plain white. The fabric has the perfect light crispness to hold all those pleats but also the drape and hand that meant it fell nicely from the gathered points. And obviously it wrinkles like a linen!

Buttons were a perfect grey/green variegated plastic button. Matches like this can only come from a trip to Butotnmania with fabric in hand. I'm never disappointed with what they can find for me!

There's a lot of fabric in the skirt at the back as a result of all those pintucks. I was nervous about how that would look on my mum, but since she doesn't have a big backside to begin with I think it works really well for her.

This was new territory for me in terms of making such dramatic changes to a pattern. But then once I thought about it I could see that I had my basic block there with the Gallery Dress. I attribute some of my confidence in tackling this to the Building Block Dress Book, which, while it is for girl's dresses, shows how to take a basic block and manipulate it to get what you are imagining. I was able to see how each of these small changes to the pattern would result in a wholly different dress.

And a perfectly unique dress, 'cause no way am I doing it again!

Details:
Pattern: Based on Liesl + Co Gallery Tunic and Dress
Size: 12
Fabric: Linen/cotton (?) from The Cloth Shop
Notions: buttons from Buttonmania. Gutterman thread,... lots and lots of thread.

Snow play time!

Back at the start of June we found ourselves with a free weekend, which is a rarity, and it happened to be the opening of the "snow season".... So we went to the snow, or at least what there was of it.

Northern hemispere blog readers might find this hilarious, but we had a great time tobagganing on the swimming pool sized patch of man made snow. At least we did until midday when it had turned into the consistency of a 7-Eleven slushie, and parents were seen dragging their kids down the tobogganing slope.

While we might not have serious winter snow falls I was still going to make sure the kids were warm and comfy for their snow play. So, I hit up the fabric stash for the cuts of merino jersey I always buy when it's on sale at The Fabric Store.

P got leggings and a long sleeved t-shirt made form an olive green merino jersey I'd previously used here, and an almost-co-ordinating stripe used for his own jumper here, and some electric blue leftovers that date way, way back. The sleeve piecing was due to fabric shortage.

Patterns are Oliver + S Field Trip Raglan T-shirt and Playtime leggings. Both size 8 but lengthened by virtue of adding cuffs.

I didn't make any notes of measurements. Neither did I bother with stripe matching. Nor did I care at all about the construction techniques. These were banged out fast on the overlocker in order to do the job and make the deadline.

And then A got exactly the same. Size 6, I think. Also entirely leftover fabrics: Leafy brown dress here, pink deer skivvy here and cuffs from another of my skivvies in the earlier post link.

We hired snow suits, snow boots and a toboggan each for the kids and kitted them out in some super warm alpaca socks from Creswick Wool Mills. Perfectly toasty warm and dry for playing in the snow.

Neither of them had gloves, and since the bike commutes to school are getting pretty nippy on the fingers I decided to knock out a couple more pairs of mittens.

The pattern is from Little Things To Sew. I used some of the amazing double sided bonded, windproof fleece that I'd bought for school vests and only used once before, here. It's fun to be able to swap the fabric sides for red on blue, or blue on red.

Each pair of mittens was lined by creating another pair of mittens from the scraps of merino jersey. Then, instead of an external casing for the elastic I sewed a channel of both inner and outer mitten, threaded the elastic in, then closed the channel. The wrist edge of the glove is then finished with quilting cotton bias binding.

Here's the lining mittens pulled out to show. The jersey is so stretchy compared to the windproof fleece that the lining mittens are probably a bit big and wrinkly. I'd also enlarge the thumb piece if I was doing this again as that seems to be the smallest part, especially when doubled up.

I did point out to the kids that the mittens would not be waterproof, but of course they dragged their hands in the snow and got them soaking wet, then complained. Still, now that they're clean and dry, they're in steady use for the commute to school.

...and the thermals? Well they're turning out to be both kids preferred pajamas. Makes sense as the bedrooms in our house are about as cold as that snowfield was!

Which brings me to that inversely proportional law of enthusiasm about a sewing project. You know, the more you care for something, the less they like it. Well, it turns out the most useful things are those that sit right in the middle of the graph. No-one is overly enthusiastic: they're not that exciting to make; they're not what you're going to choose to wear to the school disco. But gee if they're not the most useful clothes of all.

For me, I was just delighted to be able to dig out my old gear and use that all over again. But you can see I did have my matching olive-green merino skivvy underneath.

Art Museum Trousers twice straight up

Almost two years ago I made the kid two pairs of Oliver + S Art Museum trousers and they have been in constant rotation ever since. Yes, he LOVED those cheetah pants and wore them all the time. They have held up really well to wear, somewhat surprisingly given the fabric is just a cotton sateen, but they are definitely too short now. The denim pair have worn through at the knees as well as being outgrown. Time to double up on Art Museum pants again.

 

First up is the plain black denim pair. This is a small part of a great denim that I scored from Rathdowne Fabrics for only $5/metre due to flood damage. I think the bottom of the fabric roll may have been wet but it's washed up perfectly and even on the wrong side there's no stains or marks.

I love the welt pockets on these pants. They're largely decorative as I don't think I've ever seen him use them for holding anything. For practical sewing purposes they could be left off or switched for patch pockets, but they just look so cool and I always find myself sewing them anyway.

I got a bit scissor happy and snipped too close to one corner. On any other fabric it would have been barely noticeable, but of course denim has those really obvious white warp threads that will pop out and scream "hole pending here!". So I added some decorative and very functional topstitching!

The 2015 pants were straight size 7, this year they're straight size 8. How's that for easy fitting. His body measurements fit the size 8 perfectly but height is closer to size 9 or even 10. However this is one pants pattern with plenty of leg length. I stuck to the straight size 8.

To lighten things up a bit, the waistband facing and the pocket bags were sewn in a quilting cotton.

I'll take whatever modelling I can get these days. Sigh.

Back when I was first searching for fabric to make the Cheetah outfit, I came across some grey on grey big cat print denim. I happily snapped it up only to be told by the kid that it was Jaguar not Cheetah and therefore would. not. do.

A year and a half later I figured the jaguar jeans could be made to replace the cheetah trousers.

These are a fair bit easier on the eye than those cheetah pants - which curiously no one seems to want as hand me downs. ;)

They've already become the favourite pants and are first ones out of the drawer whenever they're clean. That's driving me nuts as there are two perfectly good pair of jeans (these and these) that are in that same drawer and never get an outing.

He was momentarily disappointed to discover the Jaguar jeans weren't lined like the cheetah pants had been. It appears the boy has developed a fondness for fully lined trousers. I've created two fashion monsters it would seem!

And another dab pose, of course.

Details:
Pattern: Oliver + S Art Museum Trousers
Size: 8 (no modifications)
Fabric: Black denim from Rathdowne Fabrics. Jaguar grey denim for The Fabric Store. Various quilting cottons for facings/pocket bags from the stash

Sunday Brunch for a Saturday Matinee

This was one of those projects that wasn't on the schedule but just had to be made. This week's schedule was looking like being a few days sick in bed then tidy up the chaos of last weeks frantic sewing before the snow.

Curled up on the couch in what was probably a tonsillitis induced delirium, it suddenly seemed like a great idea to make the kiddo a Chanel-esque suit to wear to the ballet.

Back last winter when I made my Koos jacket and found that, even after my very careful layout practice and minimal fabric purchasing, I had about 40cm and odd bits of this wool coating left, I decided it would be perfect for the Sunday Brunch Jacket.

Because the jacket has a short bodice and moderately cropped length it was likely to fit on my bits of leftover fabric. I never did measure the cut of fabric that Tessuti posted me so I don't know if they were generous or I'd over bought, but whichever was the case I wasn't letting it go to waste.

Of course once I started fiddling with the leftovers I became convinced I could cut the skirt out as well and make a mini metallic wool tweed suit. The only fudging was to piece the waistband of the skirt and have a centre front seam.

Oh this pattern. I adore it.

I've made a straight size 6 as per her measurements. She's actually about a size taller but there was no fabric left to allow lengthening anywhere, and thankfully it doesn't look like I needed to anyway.

It was Tuesday afternoon when I was feeling well enough to get down on the floor off the couch and do some cutting. That left me with my rostered day off Wednesday, and a couple of evenings to make it all....

The wool coating kind of needed lining as it's a little bit airy in its weave, and lining would save me from bias binding all those seam finishes. If you haven't seen the insides of this jacket done as per the instructions then check out some of these versions in the Oliver + S Flickr pool. All those bias bound seams! So pretty.

Anyway, I lined my jacket with some 'shroomy brown silk from the stash and then only used binding to finish the edge of the facing. Hot pink satin for the win!

The lining was easy. Simply a matter of cutting everything in silk as well as the wool coating. Sewing the lining together, then attaching both at the neckline before attaching the collar and facing.

I shortened the lining sleeves and then managed to do that pull through thing to stitch the sleeve hem to the lining hem. Feeling clever that I didn't get anything twisted or mucked up, but then realising I had miscalculated how much to cut off the lining. After a rethink I should have cut a 1/2" shorter but I wasn't unpicking stitches from that deep pile wool tweed, so let's just say there's plenty of wearing ease in the sleeve lining - and hopefully it won't hang out the bottom and be seen.

Just a little self-congratulatory pat on the back for that hair braid. I usually struggle with her fine, soft hair, but I guess it was either overdue for a wash or just a little bit of that wax stuff did the trick.

The skirt is also lined with the same silk. That was a lot simpler, but of course I'd mucked it by forgetting to fill in that little cut away triangle where the pockets are on the front top side corners. Note to self: Lay pocket pattern piece and the skirt front pattern piece on the lining and then cut. Like I ever listen.

Is it just me or is a kick pleat on a six year old's skirt not ridiculously cute?

If I could have slowed time down even further, apart from sleeping and doing some chores (yeah right) I would have sewn a little white collared shirt (Music Class probably) to go with the suit. As it was, the Class Picnic blouse worked just fine for our Saturday matinee ballet

With no time to shop, the buttons, like everything else, would also have to come from the stash. Thankfully, when I'd attended a few of the Buttonmania open warehouse sales at the old city address I'd purchased "fancy coat buttons" without any real idea how or when they might be used. I held a mini audition for 4 different button types and these guys were the winners. Actually there were two others I liked more at first but they were just too big. Nice to know they're there for a bigger fancy coat another day.

The big gamble with an idea like "I'll sew a Chanel style suit for my six year old in that really expensive wool from Tessuti, and I'll do it in 3 days" is not whether it can be done. But whether the kid will wear it...

If you sew for kids you'll know about the inversely proportional relationship between your excitement for a garment and theirs. The more you care, the more they "meh" your exquisite sewing.

So, here's where I got extremely lucky....

...at school, A's class is doing some enquiry based learning thing about how we communicate and our idea of ourselves. From that, she has chosen the subject of how fashion has changed with time. She's told me that she and James (nope, I don't know him either) have chosen that topic because they're both really good at drawing. Turns out James draws a fine array of skirts: short ones, long ones, triangle-y ones...

Anyway I started talking to her about Dior's New Look and Coco Chanel's suits. A quick Google search and some pictures viewed on my phone and suddenly she was all over the idea of a wool tweed suit, just like Chanel (who I suspect is also another kid in her class, - skirt drawing skills unknown). This is perhaps now her all time favourite thing ever.

With kids I've learned to neither take pride in, nor try to understand little victories like this. Just enjoy it and roll with the moment.

The victory that makes perfect sense is the result which comes from sewing with impeccably good patterns and beautiful fabrics. I sourced and chose them. I'll take that as win for me.

Details:
Pattern: Oliver + S Sunday Brunch jacket + skirt
Size: Size 6
Modifications: Added lining to both jacket and skirt
Fabric: Italian metallic wool coating (no longer available) from Tessuti 
Notions: Silk lining from stash (via Rathdowne fabrics), buttons from Buttonmania, thread, 3/4" elastic.

A June of gifts

Thanks for all the kind comments about the cycle wear patterns. I promise I'll get on to uploading them and writing some basic guidelines soon.

Meanwhile, I've been sewing like a woman possessed and just popped up for a bit of air and to throw a few things up on the blog. In between other projects I've squeezed in a few gifts:

First up was a Swingset skirt for a little friend of A's. I hadn't planned to make anything this year, although this is the same kid who received the Moon Bunny skirt and then the Little Kunoichi t-shirt. So perhaps I had set myself a precedent...

Anyway I was busy and I'd excluded a handmade. That is, until A chose the gift she wanted to give: A lurid, fluorescent, fake fur covered, lockable journal that had that sickly sweet, plastic-ky smell of the little-girl-stationary-shop. Ok, so I knew the recipient would love it. Heck I probably would have loved it when I was seven, but that didn't stop me from feeling compelled to balance out the tackiness with an elegant little handmade skirt

I already had the Swingset skirt drafted off in a size 5, and my sizeable fabric stash yielded the floral and plain fabrics along with the matching ribbon and the required elastic. Easy and free!

This really is one of the nicest skirt patterns. The way it hangs and swishes, the perfect neat finish, the comfy double elastic waistband, the pretty ribbon tie and it's just delightful to sew too. Ten out of ten for this one.

Meanwhile a friend had offered me first pickings on her mum's sizeable pattern and fabric stash - all of which was destined for the op shop. I helped myself to plenty of fabric and snaffled the whole box of vintage patterns to pass on to a smaller sized sewing buddy. My friend picked up a piece of fabric that I'd passed over and asked if she could possibly have a skirt made from it - something simple for summer. Sure I said, I know just the pattern...

And so I made the Everyday Skirt. Her waist size put her between the Small and Medium but her hip size was below the Extra Small size. I know this pattern tends to run big and is more flattering if there isn't crazy amounts of gathering at the back. I wear the Medium size and my friend is much smaller than me, so I went with the Extra Small. Happy to say it's a perfect fit and she has promised me a modelled shot from an exotic summery location soon.

The fabric is a tightly woven, fine, semi-sheer cotton with a lovely hand and a slight sheen. While the print didn't appeal to me, the way it sewed up really won me over and I would now say this is a really nice fabric, full stop.

There was a little bit left over and since my friend has a daughter just 6 months younger than A, and since everyone should get to share in the awkwardness that is matchy-matchy dressing, I kept on sewing...

I'd missed making the Teaparty dress one last time for A, and since this one tops out at size 5 I was keen to give it a final farewell. Also, this little girl had inherited two of A's tiny Teaparty playsuits and her parents had loved them dearly. Time for a dress version.

Again, I'm hanging out for a modelled photo! I tried it on A before gifting it and while the body fit is fine it would be very short on her. Maybe not indecently so, but in that vintage pattern, wow, that's short kind of realm. Hopefully on her shorter, younger buddy it will be a nice fit.

Usually this week would see my painting up a t-shirt for P's birthday, but since I've just booked a weekend at the snow, it will be all systems go on merino thermals for the kids. See you again when I next come up for air. :)

SoHo shorts - Oh So good

As we plunge into winter I've sewn some seasonally inappropriate shorts, but let me explain...

When Liesl + Co released the SoHo Shorts and Skirt pattern, Liesl asked me if I would write a tutorial or two for some minor modifications to the pattern. First up was adding belt loops. The blog post is live now on the Oliver + S website - click on the image below if you want a belt loop tutorial. Stick around here if you want a pattern review and to see me freezing in some windy, unseasonal shorts modelling shots :)
 

I'm not much of a shorts wearer, so I was a little on the fence about this idea at first. I wear lycra bibknicks when I cycle but apart from one pair of knee length casual-wear shorts (that I'll confess are technically maternity pants) I don't have any other shorts. My legs above the knee are not usually on show!

I made a muslin of the shorts and found the fit to be absolutely perfect - except for the length. Here I've added 4cm to the hem length - there is a lengthen/shorten line midway between the crotch and the hem for adjusting leg length. You can probably appreciate from the little glimpse of my quads that you get at this hem length that any shorter would have been alarming.

OK, so it was really windy trying to get photos of these shorts and until it's 30 degrees or more I'm not putting them back on just for the sake of better pictures. You'll just have to take my word for it that the fit is really good.

The shaped waistband was just right and the back sits nice and close and smooth then falls straight down (unless antartic gusts dictate otherwise) from the peak butt point.

There's pockets (for keeping your fingers warm - eye roll).

And the insides can look pretty lovely too with the waistband facing - in this case finished with some narrow liberty bias binding.

The fabric is some lightweight chambray that my parents were given by an aunt of mine when they visited. It seems word has got around that I sew, so thanks Chris!

As I was sewing and writing a belt loop tutorial it occurred to me that I don't own any belts. My husband and I tend to share this one which he inherited from his dad (we're not yachties!). Since I was going with the nautical themed belt I decided to whip up a Maritime Knit Top to go with my shorts.

I dropped one size from my previous Maritime knit top, but in this softer knit (the other one is a ponte) I think I could have got away with a size smaller again. But as it is, it's super comfy and easy to wear. The fabric is almost as thick as a ponte, but much softer and with nicer drape. I can't remember much about it other than it came from Stylish Fabrics as the same time as the lighter, very fluid, drapey rayon knit that I used for this other red and white striped top.

So there I stand, already dreaming about making the skirt version of the SoHo pattern, or maybe a winter pair of shorts in wool or tweed.  Or maybe I'm thinking about how exceedingly cold it is and whether all the bird shit on the boat ramp somewhat detracts from my attempt at a glamorous photo shoot....

Details:
Liesl + Co. SoHo Shorts and Skirt
Size:10 (size range is 0-20)
Alterations: Added 4cm length. Please note: there is an errata for the front pleat markings on the Oliver + S website. Of course I didn't look for any errata prior to sewing and you know what, it seemed to make no difference for my size. I only noticed the error listing when I was browsing the pattern page for another reason. Checking first is always recommended. ;)
Fabric: gifted chambray
Notions: invisible zip, thread, bias binding

Liesl + Co. Maritime knit top
Size: 12 - alarm bells should have gone off as my top half has never been a size bigger than my bottom half. usually the other way around.
No alterations
Fabric: knit from Stylish Fabrics (18 months or so cellaring in my stash)