WIP Wednesday: I Want An Embroidered Linen Top plus MKAL Progress

Well, I'm in full scale sewing mode again this week. I've been churning out nice wardrobe staples, but I've also been doing the leg-work for recreating this top:

I got this from a thrift store a while ago. It's 100% polyester and Faded Glory brand (so it's from Walmart), which I normally wouldn't go for, but just look at it! I know the photo on me is hard to see because it's white on white, but here is a darkened photo to hopefully see the details better.

This shirt has insertion lace at the waist and on either side of an embroidered panel. It's giving me very Edwardian-adjacent vibes and I love it. I wear this even thought it's some kind of microfiber-esque polyester and it's August in Florida. I do hate the belly flap at the bottom, but that's something I will change on any future iterations. So I've decided I want to recreate this top in natural fibers - bleached linen for the fabric, hopefully cotton thread for the embroidery. I have a really good embroidery machine now and I never know what to actually embroider, but I know it is more than capable of a design like this so that is now my ultimate goal.

I started off by making a muslin-turned-favorite-shirt of New Look 6483 in a yellow embroidered cotton eyelet material I picked up at a thrift store recently on Sunday night, which turned out great. I scooped the neckline down about an inch and pulled the shoulders in 1 inch on each side. I also went with a bias bound neckline because I hate futzing with facings. But yeah - love how this turned out, and I plan on using this as the base for my embroidered linen top. I'm working on the embroidery aspect now - gotta find swirls and such that are reminiscent - and I'm searching my crazy stash to pick an insertion lace. So this is in the works and currently my favorite project to contemplate.

I also have been plugging away at the Sweet Georgia Yarns Playin' My Song MKAL and it's looking better than I thought it would in this smaller-than-recommended yarn, honestly. This yarn knits up just so lovely and soft too. The only bummer is that I thought I was on track to have the 1st clue completed before the 2nd clue came out yesterday, but then I got to the end of Clue 1 and saw that you repeat rows 5 through 29 again, lol. Whoops. So I am not ready for the 2nd clue yet, but it's looking nice all the same. I know I won't finish it in the 3 weeks, but it's still fun to join in the make along.

What have you been working on this week?