Yoga Top | Burda 01/2018 #105

Do you ever make something and want to love it?  I mean reeeallly love it?

That's how I felt about this top....

.....And I don't.  I just don't.

It's not the pattern's fault.  It's a super cute pattern.

Burda 01/2018 #105A,B

Methinks it has more to do with poor fabric choice(s) and the oversized design not suitable for my body shape.  Sometimes these types of loose, oversized tops look better on super slim shapes, than my more curvy one, thus the fabric catching/clinging as you can see here, below, and on most of the photos unless I am standing ever so still and in just the right stance.  Even in the header photo you can see it clinging to the top of my shorts.  Also the back catches on my backside in a most unflattering way..... but I'm not showing those photos!

Let's look at little closer at this top.  Purchased a thin, 4-way stretch, super soft rayon jersey knit at Hobby Lobby thinking 'soft', 'drapey'.... but in hind sight it's probably too thin for this top.  Made a size 36 with no modifications.

This is a fabric eater needing almost 2 yards..... which I did not have..... so my first mistake was thinking a white knit in the stash, with the same knit properties would be a sort of 'cool' back.  Wrong!  The first thing both my daughter and husband said when they saw it was that it looked like a 'sport' 'baseball' shirt.  Noooooooooooooo!  Deflated right then, let me tell ya'.

Looking at the line drawing again you can see how there are no armscye seams in the front, yet seems to be in the back.....

..... yet those are really a very cleverly designed curved dart.  This photo below was shared on Instagram and I wanted to be sure and share it here.  I'm showing how I set up my dart, really this is how I set up all my darts but it worked especially well on this curved over 10" long one.  First I traced the dart from the pattern to my fabric using white tracing paper and a tracing wheel.  Then I marked the dart ending point with a perpendicular pin, then pinned the dart exactly where I wanted to stitch, being careful to catch the back seam with the pin right on the traced marks.  Stitch slowly and carefully from the side seam to dart ending point, finish stitching by dialing your stitch down to nothing.  Do not backstitch at your dart points.  Leave a long enough tail to thread a hand needle, then sew/hide it back inside the dart seam.  Voila'!  You will have a perfectly stitched dart.

Like this one, below.  This looks like an armscye seam in the back, but is actually the dart.  The fabric wraps around from the front, forming the sleeve with the dart and joins the back with diagonal seams.  I topstitched those.

With the side view it's easier to see how odd the white looks against the blue.  *sigh*  Also these sharkbite hemlines are not a flattering look for me.  Of course AFTER I'd made this top and was struggling with why I did not like it, I remembered an old rtw top that had this sharkbite hemline that I never liked, because I did not think it flattered my shape, and quickly got rid of it.  I may cut this off and make it a regular hemline at some point.

Kind of proud of the neckline.  I don't have much experience with V-necks, but followed Burda's instructions and feel this is one of the best features of this top!

Inside out at the neckline you can see my top-stitching looks a little crooked but that's okay as the right side looks perfect.  My relief was that the top-stitching 'caught' the binding at the back!  The 'V' is finished with a little dart.

These are the leggings this top was made for.  I.do.not.like.this.  You see I like longer tops with my leggings when I exercise and thought this would check all those boxes, so to speak.  It does not. 

Here, Below, you can see the back a little better.  Looks like a baseball shirt.  *sigh*

I do like this a little better, below, paired with gray Burda Leggings 01/2018 #107 (unblogged) that works better, visual wise, but even then you can see how it's sort of clinging to my backside.  The white is so unbecoming back there too.

So I was very surprised, when I paired it with the Itch to Stitch Belize Shorts today for Me-Made-May, that it's sort of 'okay'.  I've enjoyed wearing it today.  So please do not let my disenchantment dissuade you from making this top as with better fabric choices, and consideration of body shape..... I still think it is super cute.

This will be my May 2018 Burda Challenge project.

And wanted to share this lovely Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly with you.  This beauty is South Carolina's State Butterfly and we see lots of them on our property.

Happy Sewing All!  :)