FO: Sparkle Peony Agnes Top

Sometimes in any hobby, you just need a simple palette cleanser. It's not that I've been working on anything super hard lately - it's just that I haven't been able to work on much of anything at all. So when I finally had a few evenings in a row to sew, I decided to go for a sure fire win :)

This started with me wanting to use this fabric. This is a lovely Art Gallery jersey called Sprinkled Peonies Sparkle that I picked up at The Sewing Studio this past July. This fabric is so soft and I just love the color palette, plus the stamens are actually a metallic rose gold - very cool. I knew I wanted to use this fabric, but I didn't know which top to make. I bought what was left on the bolt, so I only had 1.25 yards to work with. In the end I decided to go with my current puffed sleeve obsession.

Yes, this is another Agnes Top because I just love those puffed sleeves. Technically this pattern takes more fabric in my size, but with some careful pattern Tetris I squeezed all the pieces in and the only change is that the sleeves were made about 1/2" shorter (but really, who is going to notice that?). So now all I have are odd shaped scraps that are too small for any adult anything. That's pretty good in my book :) Since I only had a small cut, I didn't have much choice with pattern placement, but happily this fabric didn't give me any awkward flower boobs.

This fabric performed beautifully in the sleeves of this pattern, which is something I notice and appreciate after my initial let down when using a cheapy rayon jersey.

And I did my usual forward shoulder adjustment on this version, which got everything sitting where it should be. Looks good from the back too.

My only niggle with this version is something I should've known better. I cut the neckband the length that the pattern calls for, which would normally be fine When I was pinning it into the neckline, I remember thinking, "wow, I'm not having to stretch this neckband much at all," but it was more of a passing thought and I just kept going. I know better! I should have stopped right there and shortened that band before I sewed it on. Sadly, I did not do this. I was so focused on getting a finished item in the little time I had available that I motored through. Now I have a tragically loose neckband. This is actually the only neckband I've ever had do this - it actually tips forward away from my body when it's worn. Ugh. You can't see it much in these photos because the shirt hadn't been worn yet, so the fabric was nice and taught still, but believe me it's a problem. I thought I would just leave it, but after wearing this a few times I find it is actually embarrassing that it pulls away. I ran out of my light pink thread I used for top stitching, but I have now purchased more and I will be undoing the entire band and making it shorter. Learn, Megan, learn! Ugh.

So once I fix my neckband, I will be totally happy with this little number :) In spite of the issue, I have already worn this about once a week, so I know it will be a fun item this fall. Yay for easy wins!

Summary:
Fabric: 1.25 yards Sprinkled Peonies Sparkle Knit cotton jersey by Art Gallery Fabrics - $15.99
Pattern: Agnes Top by Tilly and the Buttons
Notions: knit stay tape - $0.25, thread - $1.00, elastic - free
Time: 3 hours
Total Cost: $ 17.24

FO: Acid Agnes Top Refashion

This feels like a miracle, but I actually have a finished object to post! lol I've missed having something to share, so it's nice to have something to talk about on the ole blog. First up is the first finished - my new Acid Green Agnes Top. Believe it or not, this came to me looking quite different originally:

Yep - this is a refashion, and one I'm pretty proud of. I bought this New York & Co size XS cotton/modal dress at a thrift store well over a year ago (maybe a few years now, to be honest). I bought it for the express purpose of refashioning since it had a lot of fabric to work with (thank you full length) and it was an interesting color. Honestly I think I bought this thinking I would dye it, lol. But time changes our minds on certain things. I had recently finished my Quill Peggy Skirt and I've worn my Lotta Sailor Top with it out of sheer stubbornness. I really don't care for the two items together (though I've worn the Lotta top loads with other skirts). This means my lovely skirt has hung up unworn. Imagine my thrill when I came across this thrifted dress again and discovered it was the exact color of the acid green accents on the Quill print linen :) I immediately set to work to make this into a top specifically for this skirt.

The only interesting aspect of the original dress was the pull string ruching on the sides. There were channels stitched almost the entire length of the dress, so technically you could pull this up to be knee length if you wanted to. The original owner had the ties knotted at a certain length (as you can see). Seeing this ruching ignited my love of a good puffed sleeve. I wanted to make this as part of the The Refashioners 2018 and the prompt this year is just that it needs to be inspired by an image - this is a bit of a different method for me with refashions since I usually just let the available fabric tell me what it needs to be. But since I knew I wanted to use the pull ties on the sleeves and that I wanted a puffed sleeve look, I started searching for inspiration photos and I came away with this top:

photo c/o Miss Selfridge

I love the sleeves on this top - they are puffed and near elbow length, but the rest of the top is very simple and a solid color. Perfect! The only real change I wanted to make was the neckline -  I just don't care for V necks on me - just personal preference. I decided to use the Agnes Top pattern by Tilly and the Buttons to recreate this look but with my preferred scoop neck. Since I was limited on fabric, I just had the little added suspense to find out if I could make the pattern pieces fit. It took some serious pattern Tetris, but I managed to just squeeze out the pieces.

To maximize my fabric, I cut the front and back pattern pieces from the upper front and back of the dress - since the dress was an XS, there wasn't enough width for my body to complete these pieces though. I just cut as wide as possible and then set them aside. Next I decided to cut my sleeves using the ruched side sections instead of adding the elastic ruching of the pattern. I used the existing skirt hem and lined the ruching up with the center of the sleeve the whole way down.

I seriously love these sleeves and I'm pretty smug about it, lol. I still gathered the top of the sleeve like usual because I love me a puffed sleeve. After cutting those out, I chopped the ties much shorter. I used the original sleeve bands to cut my neckband piece. That is all the pattern pieces, so once I had everything cut out, I laid out all my remaining bits. I had just enough width to make 2 triangular gusset-like pieces to make up the difference on the body pieces.

I sewed the extra piece to the front and back, spanning the area that would usually have a side seam. This was a total gamble - meaning I suspected I would have enough but it might be a bit snug - and it totally paid off. The shirt fits just fine :) Things were a little complicated under the arms when it came time to set in the sleeves, but I got there in the end.

And here's a blurry view of the back - whoops. Confession - there was a small spot on the front of the dress that I could not get completely out (and believe me, I tried - it must have been very old). So I decided to cut the back piece on the front of the dress, making that spot somewhere on my upper back. It's very faint and now it's on my back so I doubt anyone will notice.

So after I assembled the whole shirt, I had to decide on a sleeve ruching length. I pulled the sleeve ties up to how I liked it, then tied a double knot and a bow, cutting off the excess of the ties. I hand sewed the bow and knots down to avoid any issues. This left me with several decent sized tie pieces left over. Earlier in the project,  I decided to try sewing this entire shirt with my serger (aside from the hemming and whatnot), and while I was setting in my neckband I didn't notice that the body of the shirt had wrinkled under my foot and I sewed in a pucker :/ Luckily it didn't reach the knife so I was able to unpick the serging, but this fabric is a bit temperamental with unpicking and I accidentally pulled a small hole just off center on the front. Ugh. I had originally planned to leave the front of the shirt plain like the inspiration photo, but now I had a small hole that I repaired but would drive me crazy to see every time I wore this top. So I started playing with the scrap ties. I rolled them into rosettes and tried out some placement, asking opinions on Instagram. In the end I decided to use all the tie pieces to make the rosettes as big as possible and to go with a configuration of three.

I deliberately made the center one a little bigger just because it looked a bit off when they were the same size. My hole is up by the stitching line under the left rosette in this photo - totally covered :) These rosettes were a pain in the butt - not gonna lie. I just rolled them as I went, hand stitching them to the previous row to secure it neatly the whole way around. Once they were totally sewn as a rosette, then I secured them to the shirt with large stitches to keep them in place. I spent about as much time sewing them as I did on the entire rest of the shirt, but I like the added detail and I love that the hole is not visible. Project saved!

Here's a look at my crazy under arm area. Press as I might, I could not get the old stitching lines to disappear where the old channels were for the ties. I'm hoping this fades after a wash. It's not a huge deal in the meantime though since it's under my arms.

In the end, this was all that remained of the dress - talk about almost zero waste! I was pretty proud of this result, lol.

And I even saved the original tag, sewing it into the side seam - after I unpicked the XS and Made in Indonesia on the label, of course. Since those things weren't true anymore :)

And now I have a shirt to wear with my awesome skirt! I'm glad to finally have an outfit for this skirt - it's so cute and it deserves to be worn! Here's hoping my shirt holds out. I think the first washing will tell a great deal (I'm just concerned about those previous stitching lines). This turned out to be a super cheap make, but really I would've paid more to make this skirt more wearable :)

And in spite of my minor issues and on-the-fly changes I had to make, I think this is a pretty good representation of the inspiration top :) Yay for refashioning!

Summary:
Fabric: Size XS New York & Co acid green cotton/modal knit dress - $1.00 (thrifted)
Pattern: Agnes Top by Tilly and the Buttons
Notions: thread - $1.00, knit stay tape - $0.25
Time: 4 hours
Total Cost: $ 2.25

FO: Flamingo Agnes

So while my last post wasn't very wearable, this version more than makes up for it :) But first, check it out - I made an outfit!

I'll be posting about the skirt I made to wear with this soon, but don't they look cute together?! I love it.

So anyway - this is another Agnes Top by Tilly and the Buttons. After the fit was relatively good on the first version, I immediately cut into this adorable fabric. The fabric is a cotton spandex jersey from Dear Stella and it's covered in Flamingos. I'm hip! But really I just thought this print was adorable. I picked up 1.5 yards of this fabric last July at The Sewing Studio hoping to make a puffed sleeve t-shirt with it. For some reason I decided that Memorial Day Weekend was the time to make this happen. 

So the sleeves turned out absolutely awesome in this fabric. This jersey has a nice amount of body, being cotton, so the sleeves stand up on their own just lovely. The ruching is really just so simple to do, making it all that much more awesome. I will be going on my bi-annual pilgrimage for fabric on July 4th and you can bet your butt I will be picking some other cotton prints to make more of these sleeves with.

Since the fit was so good on the first version, I decided to experiment with a small change I've been wondering about for a while now. I've noticed with my other tops (rtw or handmade) my shoulder seam always shifts behind my actual shoulder. I knew forward shoulders were common, but for some reason I put off actually making an adjustment thinking it would be annoying or something. Seriously? This was basically the easiest adjustment I've ever made. I did a 5/8" forward shoulder adjustment on this version and look - my seam is directly on my shoulder! What a novel idea! I now have this alteration on my pattern pieces, so I really need to remember to do this on other shirts in the future. If you've never done it - don't let it scare you! It's so easy and so worth it.

This top looks pretty good from the back as well. The top may actually be a little long for ths skirt I've made to wear with it - so weird since I usually have to lengthen shirts. It doesn't bother me, but I will probably wear it kind of scrunched like this depending on what I wear it with.

The only thing that didn't come out just like I wanted was the ruching at the bust. The pattern has the larger sizes start the elastic a distance from the finished neck band, which I think looks a bit odd. The smaller sized have the elastic right at the band. I think I will change that on any future versions and just start the elastic where it looks good. Also my ruching doesn't seem to scrunch all that much. I think it's because this fabric has such great recovery - it kind of fights against the elastic and the fabric wins. So it's a cute detail if you look close, but it doesn't pull the neckline at all like it should. It may also be that my elastic isn't firm enough. I didn't have any clear elastic, so this is some old knit elastic and it's very easy to stretch. I'm contemplating pulling this out and redoing it when I get some more clear elastic just to see if it makes a difference.

And here's a close up of those lovely details. And flamingos! I seriously love this fabric, lol. I'm sure it's designed for children, but I do not care. The sketchy style flamingos looks super cute combined with the ruched sleeves. Another change I made due to the fabric being a bit of a firm stretch is that I pulled on the hem a bit as I sewed. I'm constantly having the hems unravel on my closer fitting tops and I have a theory it's because it's too snug there and the bobbin thread pulls out when stretched. I didn't stretch it enough to look wavy, but just a smidge all the way around in hopes of fighting this issue.

So that's my newest favorite shirt :) Flamingos! Hooray! I'll be off enjoying my super puffy sleeves and dreaming of my next version. I'm so glad I finally bit the bullet and bought this pattern. If you're on the fence, this sleeve is so worth it. Have you made this pattern?

Summary:
Fabric: 1.5 yards Dear Stella Flamingo print jersey - $16.00
Pattern: Agnes Top by Tilly and the Buttons
Notions: knit stay tape - $0.25, 1/3" elastic - free, thread - $0.75
Time: 2.5 hours
Total Cost: $ 17.00

FO: Navy Gingham Agnes

Since I will be moving very soon, I knew this Memorial Day weekend would be my last hurrah in my sewing room. I had plans, folks. I had things I wanted to make *spoiler alert - I DID make things*. During Me Made May this year, several pattern companies put their patterns on sale. I've hemmed and hawed about getting the Agnes Top by Tilly and the Buttons for literal years now. I'll have it in my cart to buy during a sale or something, and then I'll talk myself out of it because I'm really just after that sleeve pattern and I can technically draft it myself. I've been planning on doing this for years now. YEARS. But I just really wanted to make a puffy sleeved top and I knew I would not be putting in the time and the trial and error to get the right amount of oomph for quite some time, so during the sale I finally bought the pattern. I figured it was worth $10 to save myself the time and effort of figuring it out. So having this new-to-me pattern in my hands, I needed a muslin to check the fit before cutting into my amazing "real" fabric. This is that muslin.

So as I said this is the Tilly and the Buttons Agnes Top - an adorable and versatile basic t-shirt pattern with optional ruched sleeves and bust. I seriously bought this for the ruched version only, so that is what I made. Wanting to give this a real college try yet also not wanting my heart to be broken if my muslin didn't fit right, I pulled out this adorable looking yet terrible quality jersey. I bought this navy gingham printed light weight jersey from Walmart maybe a year ago simply because the print was adorable and it was $2 per yard. I knew it was light then, but I was blinded by the print and the price. Having made the top I know the true terrible quality here - this stuff hides absolutely nothing. I feel like a bowl full of jelly with this top on. It would look cheap on pretty much anyone, I'm convinced. So while I loved the idea, I very much doubt I will be wearing this simply because the fabric is so awful, lol.

The good news out of this shirt is that the pattern fit great. I used a size 7 at the bust and above, grading to a size 8 at the waist and hip. Also I did go into this hoping it would be wearable, so I gave pattern matching a good try. This fabric was so super stretchy that it was basically impossible to match everywhere, but I'm happy with the even-ness of the neck band and the bit of matching at the sides. One the not so good side, this stuff is so stretchy and has so little body that my puffed sleeves look sadly deflated, lol. It looks nice on a hanger, but not from the front on my body.

One way you might be able to see what I'm saying with the fabric is in this picture. Look at those sad, floppy sleeves! Also see how the area in the middle of my back is a lighter color navy? That's because the navy is just printed on a white fabric and it is stretching at my upper back. Yeah.

And this over stretched effect only gets better from the front. Every time I look at these pictures I think "objects in this top are larger than they appear" - this is not the case at all, but it certainly looks like the girls are too big for their business here. My husband called this my optical boob illusion shirt. 

I do love the ruched details and they are super easy to do - just add elastic and pull. Love it. Also check that neck band action.

So while I'm not comfortable in this, I am happy with what I learned for the fit. This project gave me the immediate go ahead to cut into my awesome fabric that came next :) So not all is lost here. Now I really want to find a better quality version of this fabric, though. It's a really cute idea. Hopefully I can make that happen one day. So on we go toward actual wearable puffed sleeves next time (check back soon).

Summary:
Fabric: 1.5 yards gingham printed poly knit - $4.28
Pattern: Agnes by Tilly and the Buttons
Notions: Knit stay tape - $0.25, 1/3" elastic - free, thread - $1.00
Time: 3 hours
Total Cost: $5.53