Simplicity 2188 Top

It's still hot and humid in South Carolina, so summertime sewing is still in full swing.

This pretty crepe fabric was picked up off the Clearance table at Hobby Lobby for @$4.00 for a 1 1/2 yard piece and I could not for the life of me figure out which was the 'up' side and/or 'down' side as it looked to me as the blue flowers went one way, and the coral flowers went the other.  Thinking the blue might be a more 'dominant' color, I went with blue flowers up.  And may I add this fabric was so slippery and slidey and a real pain to work with.  Terrible.  But the top turned out a pleasure to wear, so guess it was all worth it in the end.

OOP Simplicity 2188 has been in the pattern stash for years and this is my first make from this 'easy' pattern.  Uses @1 yard of fabric so my piece was perfect.  Photo credits below to Pattern Review.

There was much thought in pattern placement as I wanted the larger flowers to be centered, with the smaller leaves and surrounding flowers placed symmetrically all 'round.

Feel that was accomplished well in the back too.  At the hemline, both front and back, you can see where my darn  slidey fabric moved off placement during cutting..... but I'm okay with that.

And it wasn't until I began to write this post that I noticed my right sleeve was completely turned in and looks awkward with extra creases and pleating in these photographs.

Oh well, keeping it real today!!

Made a Small based on my measurements, with no modifications.  Had to unpick a couple of the pleats because again, the darn slidey fabric shifted during marking transfers.  To be perfectly honest, all these pleats were eventually sort of 'winged'..... which is a huge deal for this perfectionist!  Hem is twin-needle stitched.

A closer look at the pretty pleated neckline.

The shoulder seam hits a little to the front.  I top-stitched it for extra durability against any weird stretching and also because I just like this look.

Neckline has facings so it doesn't impede the pretty pleats and found I actually like this.  The neckline facings were a pain to cut dealing with the darn slidey fabric, so once I cut out the facing interfacing pieces, I simply placed those over my wonky fabric neckline facing pieces and cut/traced from there.  Even though I'd stay-stitched the entire neckline, found the back neckline had stretched out a little, so I measured very carefully before pinning the prepared facing to the neckline..... lining up the offset shoulder seams first and working from there.  Be sure to clip, trim and understitch the facing after sewing.  Not sure the instructions have you do much more than understitch.  This time I serged the raw edges of facings.  All seams are sewn then serged.  Thought about doing french seams, but wanted a quick'n easy sew.  And it was!

These armscyes are not my favorite way of doing/finishing armscyes.  See that dot the red arrow is pointing to?  That's the bottom of the armscyes.  Basically this is a rectangle.  Knowing I wanted serged seams..... not serged raw edges of a seam..... it took a little brain power to figure it all out so I'd get a complete serged seam from the dot down, and serged raw edges around the armscye to be able to turn in, and in again for a finished armscye seam.  Sooooo afraid my darn finicky fabric would do some weird rolling/stretching after I'd finished these seams, but all was fairly tame after ironing.  Whew!

Wearing it with the Itch to Stitch Belize Shorts this day.  And my sweet Suzi is wearing her pretty bandana from her day at the doggy spa.

This little top is part of a larger ensemble/project I'll be sharing a little later.  So stay tuned!!

8.17.2018 EDITED TO ADD:   The original plans for this top have been completed and written about at my  'Ode to Frida Kahlo | The Story in Dress' post. Did you know this little top is a modified 'huipil'?   Please visit and read more about it there. 

Happy Sewing All!  :)