Make that TWO more times. As in it’s now been two more times that I have made the Burda WOF #121 top from the 10/1998 issue, for a total of THREE tops.
The second one was made in the same fabric as the first; the color was lime green. I made this one shorter, with 3/4 sleeves, a slightly deeper drape and narrower sholders, and it was fabulous – until I realized I had sewn the back piece WRONG SIDE OUT. Uggggh. I’m not sure it’s all that noticeable (if it were, don’t you think I would have sewn the damn thing together the right way?), so I may still wear it out in public. God knows it fits better than the first one does.
The third one was made from this polyester/Lycra knit from Gorgeous Fabrics:
This fabric has much better recovery, so much better that I think the shoulder width on my adjusted pattern could have been slightly INCREASED. But the drape is wonderful! Will post pictures soon, I promise!
Even though I’m still having problems sewing knits on my machine, this one came out SO much better than the first two. I used Steam A Seam 2 Lite and water soluble Wonder Tape, which certainly helped, but I can’t for the life of me get any decent-looking twin needle topstitching. I even bought a stretch twin needle, although i haven’t used it *with* the Wonder Tape yet, so there may still be hope for me.
I also started on a matching skirt, New Look 6735:
I was able to cut it out and sew the six skirt panels together this morning (I used the Wonder Tape on each, they went together beautifully!) and now all I need to do is finish the waistband and hem it. The pattern calls for 3/8″ elastic, but after reading some of the reviews, I think I am going to cut a separate waistband, stretch-and-sew it to the top of the skirt, then run a 1″ wide band of knitted elastic through it. Just holding the skirt up around me, I can already tell I’m going to like it when it’s done.
The only (minor) screw up I made on the skirt was cutting the center front and left front panels in virtually the same location on my fabric, so the pattern repeat…well, it *repeats*, sort of. It’s a very busy print, though, so I think it’s unlikely that it will be terribly noticeable to anyone but myself. And if it DOES turn out to be really annoying, I can always turn those panels around to the back and just pretend not to notice.
