The Ollie Top by Fibremood

As you know, from time to time, I join in with the launch of a new Fibremood magazine. Before the launch, I’m gifted a pattern of my choosing if there’s a design that appeals to me. This time around, I was interested in the Ollie top by Fibremood. I like the cropped length, the layered look and the cute pocket of the Ollie, but what really clinched it was the fact that although it has the look of a sweater layered over a shirt, there’s no collar. For some weird reason, I don’t like wearing tops with collars, as I just don’t feel like ‘me’ in them. We all have our foibles eh?

This actually turned out to be quite a sustainable make. I already had the pale blush pink sweatshirting fabric in my stash. It was a large, odd-shaped offcut left over from this big-collared sweater that I made about 3 years ago. For the lower extension and the cuffs, I bought a metre of cotton flannel from Oh Sew Crafty, which didn’t cost much. Of course, as is often the way when using up leftover fabric pieces, there’s often a need for joins, and if you scrutinise the photos, you’ll see a join in one sleeve near the cuff and a join down the centre back. I decided to highlight them with topstitching, and I like the effect 🙂

A quick note about sizing for the Ollie top: the design includes a generous amount of ease, so I recommend referring to the sizing charts for accurate measurements and choosing what works for you. I printed off the cutting lines for medium and small, but ended up using the small size, and I still took it in a little on the sides. For the record, my bust is 35″ and my waist is 32″.

I didn’t make any other major changes to the pattern apart from my usual adjustments on the front and back shoulder slopes for my forward-rolling shoulders.

The instructions were quite clear and easy to follow, which made for a pleasant sewing experience. It was quite a fun project, and my sewing machine seemed to like sewing the fabrics, which is always nice 🙂

As you can see, I used the cotton flannel to do a binding finish along the back neck. The pattern instructions don’t ask you to do this, but I thought it looked pretty, and I added a little detail on the back at the top of the centre seam (mainly because it hides a wonky bit of seam. But, don’t tell anyone I told you that 😉

My button choice is a sentimental one. These blush pink and gold buttons came off one of my dear late mum’s cardigans. In fact, mum reused the buttons on quite a few of her knitted projects; she loved them that much. So when I see the buttons, I immediately think of her wearing her cardis 🙂

I like the lines of this design with the mock layering, and I think it fits in nicely with my style parameters of Comfortable, Contrasted (interchangeable with ‘detailed’ or interesting’) and Uncluttered. And also with my Style Essences combo of Classic and Flamboyant Gamine (with the smallest amount of Ingenue). I know I’ll enjoy wearing it when the colder weather comes in the Autumn. In the meantime, I was suffering for my art when I took these photos and sweltering in 28 degrees Celsius…phew! I was glad to get back into a sun top!

Thanks for reading,

See you soon!