My blogging has been a bit lacking lately, but all I can say is, blame the weather! It’s been so darn hot in the UK. As a result, I have a bit of a backlog of sewing projects to share with you all, but having just done a big photo session of my makes, I’m ready to start telling you about them. First up is my self-drafted double gauze top. You can never have too many summer tops, can you?
The inspiration for this top was this image that I saw on my Pinterest feed.
I like the simple shape and the little yoke with gathers. It’s a little more oversized than I prefer, but we sewists can choose just how we like our clothes to fit, can’t we?
The fabric I used is a lightweight double gauze. It’s actually a leftover piece from a dress project, which I’ll be sharing soon. There was just about enough for this top, so I couldn’t be more pleased that I made good use of the fabric. This terracotta-and-cream print came from Croftmill, one of my favourite online fabric shops.
As the title suggests, I drafted this top myself. I used my bodice sloper block as a starting point, and it only took a few basic steps to emulate the inpiration image.
First of all, I marked out the V neckline, and then drew a line across where I wanted the yoke to be. I cut off that piece and folded out the shoulder dart in it.
On the bodice front, I slashed down from the upper yoke seam to the bust point and folded out the remaining darts to move all the bust shaping to the upper edge where it would be gathered into the seam.
I drew in the extended shoulder seam to create the grown-on capped sleeves, and I added width at the side to make the slightly boxy shape that I wanted. Finally, I made sure to check that my seam lengths matched and then added seam allowances. This is the front pattern with the yoke piece.
The back of the top is simpler, with just a shoulder dart and the grown-on capped sleeves
I made a quick mock-up to check the fit, and I’m happy to say it was pretty much perfect straight away; all I had to do was straighten off the shoulder slope a little.
Sewing-wise, this was a breeze to put together. I made the side seams extra neat so that the seam allowance and armhole hems were combined with topstitching that went all down the sides.
I did an extra-deep hem and faced the neckline edge with some flat bias binding. On the yoke, I topstitched both the shoulder seam and yoke seam so that everything sat nice and flat.
I barely had any experience with double gauze before sewing this printed fabric up, but I think I could get to like it. I love the texture of it. It’s incredibly lightweight to wear and is perfect for the baking hot weather we’ve been having.
I’ve styled it with my textured cream skirt here, but it will also go with my muted orange linen skirt, my cream jeans, and, of course, a classic blue jean.
I’ll very likely make more tops from this design, as it’s so useful and easy to wear. This one will definitely be heading to Greece with me in September 🙂
Thanks for stopping by. I’ll catch you in my next post,
See you soon!
What a great top! and fabric colors. I don’t believe I know the pattern for your skirt! Was it on an earlier post which I missed? I just heard a discussion about a moulage and am wondering if a sloper would be more useful for me. I don’t have a “dress form” or body double to put a moulage on to pad it out. Do you have a thought on this? Thanks.
Author
Hi Heather, thank you! I’m glad you like the result of my drafting. Ah yes, the skirt is a modified Indigo by Style Arc. It was a midaxi length until about 6 weeks ago, when I gave it the chop to make it shorter, and mine has a zip in it, whereas the intended style is an elasticated waist to the side fronts. I did a blog post a long while back 🙂
Ok, yes, my sloper…Well, I originally did the online ‘GRD Method’ drafting course with Gina Renee Designs. We drafted a skin-tight Moulage and then developed our slopers with wearing ease from our moulage patterns. I would say that if you didn’t go down a similar route to me, you could maybe source a basic sloper pattern close to your size and sew a test version that you fit to your shape from that point. Another option is to get a drafting book and follow the steps to draft a sloper from scratch to your measurements; I recommend the one by Winifred Aldrich. Feel free to email to bounce more ideas off me
Lovely blouse! How do you achieve such a perfect machine stitched V? I assume you stitch from the wrong side. I’ve never been happy with V points I’ve tried machine stitching – with bias binding or a facing -and I default to hand stitching. I’d appreciate any pointers!
Author
Ohh, thanks, Melody. For the V, firstly, I ironed on a narrow bias interfacing tape around the neck edge. I like Vliseline Formband T12, which is 1cm wide with a reinforcing stitch line down it. I overlapped the tape at the V point for extra reinforcement before I made the slash cut at the centre. I started and stopped my binding at the V, and I handsewed the mitre in place before I machine-stitched. Everything was basted thoroughly before machinining which I did from the wrong side. I used a walking foot and followed the basting line carefully. Hope this helps 🙂
Very pretty and the color looks awesome on you🧵🪡🎨 FIESTA🥳
Author
Thank you!I can’t wait to wear it in Greece 🙂
Everything came together beautifully in your blouse — fabric, pattern, execution — and you look great in it.
Author
Thanks Samina, that’s very kind of you to say.