Saturday, February 28, 2009

Mimosa Top is Done!

I realized when posting this picture that some of my non-sewing friends might look at this and think, "Hmmm, it looks the same as before, what gives?"

The finished version has finished armhole bindings and fasteners. The previous version had raw armholes and was pinned onto Miss Acme.

Those armholes...PITA, I tell you! It took me 2 days to get them installed. I'm not sure exactly why these were so hard. Partly a function of that "well behaved" synthetic olive fabric that I praised in a previous post, I think. It didn't play well with me on the bias and became somewhat bulky. I'm also not totally sold on the pattern instructions for applying the bindings. The Sewing Workshop typically has great methods on its instruction sheets, but I found the technique given for the Mimosa was a bit fiddly. I'll try it again just to see how it works with a different fabric.

For the fasteners, I used big snaps instead of buttons and buttonholes, kind of a nod to current RTW trends. I'm not sure if the placement is exactly right, but I can always adjust later if I'm bugged. And the underlap peeking out at the bottom? Yes, it's supposed to be that way.

I'm looking forward to wearing this. It'll be fun and a little different. I need to find the olive tencel so I can make coordinating pants.

6 comments:

Meg said...

V. nice! Do we get to see it on you?

NancyDaQ said...

At some point, yes. I don't have anyone at home to take pictures of me, and I don't care for self-photography. DF will be moving in with me in about a month or so, so hopefully I can start getting photos on a real body!

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

That is a really wonderful top...and I was wondering what you were going to wear with it until I got to the bottom of the post. Do you wear this outfit on a regular work day or is this a friday outfit? I'm trying to get a feel for your workplace environment...if it's as conservative as mine is?!

NancyDaQ said...

Carolyn, I'm not sure if it'll be part of a work outfit or not. Maybe I'll try it on a Friday and see how it goes. In addition to the olive pants I mentioned, the top would also go with the khaki and cream dress pants I have.

Albuquerque (and generally the Southwest as a whole) is pretty casual, so I probably wear things to work that would be way too casual for New York. Since I spend a lot of my time calling on customers, I probably dress a notch or two up from most people here. Another difference is color, we wear a lot more of it here.

Gretchen the Household Deity said...

The armholes seem worth all the fiddling--look good from here!

Tany said...

The top looks wonderful and was worth all the extra effort!