The Holiday Top goes on holiday!
This all started with a metre of high quality beige cotton jersey. I bought it to possibly use for sleeves for the Hebden t-shirt in early lockdown. But another beige jersey was a better match, so this sat at the back of my fabric cupboard throughout lockdown. In fact it had slipped to an inaccessible crevice at the back of the cupboard, and it was only when i couldn’t find this fabric, and also couldn’t close the bottom draw of the cupboard, that i finally moved the cupboard, tipped it on its side, and retrieved the lost fabric. Apart from Vest Tops, or a child’s garment, 1m doesn’t make much in my life. Luckily it was still packaged and labelled, which included the stock code, so i ordered another metre.
Partly inspired by the latest edition of The Maker’s Atelier Magazine, i decided to make another Holiday Top, but this time hooded and long sleeved. I made a number of things for my walking holidays in the spring, none of which happened, and now i am making for a late summer holiday in the UK. And here i am on my holiday, with Durdle Door in the background, and even a friendly photographer to do the honours!
I have broadly followed the pattern, although this is relatively stable jersey rather than a woven fabric (or waterproof fabric) as suggested by the pattern. The joy of beige, and there isn’t a lot of joy in beige, is that it ought to go with anything….. My expectation is that it will be worn over something; a t-shirt most likely, and effectively form an outer layer, as seen above. It may also be useful for hiking, and will roll up into my rucksack (although experience has shown that it comes out creased!).
Some technical stuff: All but the front seam are overlocked. Some are then top-stitched into place, particularly round the hood. I didn’t use tape over the hood seams, mainly because i don’t have any! I top stitched using the lightening stitch in a gold thread to get a small contrast.
I didn’t use a front facing. I simply stitched down the front seam above the opening, and then secured it with a small decorative stitch, as i did with my first Holiday Top.
I ignored the casement line. When the top was sufficiently constructed, i tried it on and determined where the casement should go. It is quite a bit higher than the pattern suggestion. As casement i used some hemming tape that i had. I think it came as part of one of my many SewBrum raffle prizes, in a sewing box. This meant that i was stitching knitted fabric to a woven fabric, which can be difficult. I retained the jersey needle, but used an ordinary stitch (not lightening). I used The Maker’s Atelier elastic and toggle to finish the gathering. I set in the sleeves, rather than stitching them flat.
I am wondering whether is needs a fastening at the neck, at the top of the opening. Neither of my Holiday Tops use such a fastening at the moment, but they are meant to be worn in decent weather. I also considered using the Contemporary Sweatshirt hoody pattern, which has a similar opening, and i also haven’t felt the need for a neck fastening when wearing that. In fact, interestingly, i found the size 18 pattern for the sweatshirt to be slightly smaller than a size 16 Holiday Top.
I’ve now used this pattern 3 times to make garments with quite different uses. The linen and new jersey version, have been worn quite a lot. The pink flounced version has been worn less, but then there were not a lot of dress up events to go to this summer. Hopefully the Holiday Top will continue to prove to be a very useful pattern.
One Week, One Pattern
Me Made May 2016
Me Made May 2015
Simplicity Competition
Sew Over it Patterns
all my own work by ann 