Quick and summery dotted top

Did you guess which knit top was my first off the starting block? Well, it’s not an obvious choice, but I already had KnipMode July 2010 #4 (upper left corner, in purple) traced out so it was easy to just grab it and go.

The dotty cotton/lycra knit fabric was an add-on from Chawla’s to get the minimum order value while I was buying the flannel underlining for my wedding gown. I bought one metre of it for £3.85 so this was a ridiculously cheap blouse, even for high street standards!

There’s a slight change from the tech drawing though – there’s a CF (centre front) seam on the band that’s not noted. It means the band and facing are cut on the fold so there’s no understitching, but the trade-off is that you get that seam.

Did you guess which knit top was my first off the starting block? Well, it’s not an obvious choice, but I already had KnipMode July 2010 #4 (upper left corner, in purple) traced out so it was easy to just grab it and go.

The dotty cotton/lycra knit fabric was an add-on from Chawla’s to get the minimum order value while I was buying the flannel underlining for my wedding gown. I bought one metre of it for £3.85 so this was a ridiculously cheap blouse, even for high street standards!

There’s a slight change from the tech drawing though – there’s a CF (centre front) seam on the band that’s not noted. It means the band and facing are cut on the fold so there’s no understitching, but the trade-off is that you get that seam.

All I wanted was a quick knit top after months of couture wedding sewing, and what happens? My overlocker jams while I was fixing a threading issue, and because the upper looper jammed against another part of the machine and bent, it cost me two weeks without an overlocker, £30 in parts (ouch, Bernina!) and another £30 in labour to fix it. Though for the amount I use my machines, I’m not too broken up about it. Can you believe this is the first time that any of my machines have been in the shop? Hooray for regular at-home cleaning and oiling! But I was really pleased with the work that Maury did, so they’ll definitely be my go-to if anything happens to my machines again.

And it reminded me that overlockers are optional for knits, so I went back to my roots and sewed this up on the sewing machine (albeit with the coverstitch for the hem) like I used to for years before I splurged on my overlocker.

While this is rather too summery to be worn in October, I got to wear it with a jacket while I was in Dublin recently, and my cousin-in-law commented on how much she loved it. It really is a great, simple pattern, but the pleats at the neckline and the side-seam gathers make it really very flattering indeed. I’ll definitely be coming back to this one once it gets warmer for a good one metre pattern!

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