Spring Top Sewalong Top #2

When we went to Tokyo 2 years ago, my souvenirs of the trip were four pattern books (two women’s clothing, a children’s clothing and a handbag book). Since then, I’ve occasionally pulled them off the shelf to browse the pretty pictures, but other than some adorable monkey pants for my baby, I hadn’t made anything yet. I’ve admired the interesting neckline detail of this one and decided to give it a try for the Spring Top Sewalong:

With summer approaching, I went with a semi-sheer white cotton lawn with rows of faggoting throughout that I had in my stash. If I remember correctly (ha!) it was part of a collection of vintage apparel fabrics my local quilting store acquired from a shop in San Francisco that went out of business.

I do not speak any more than the most rudimentary 18 month-old level Japanese (thanks to my 18 month old going to a Japanese language-only daycare), but thankfully, it was a pretty simple garment construction and the book has copious images:

With this fabric, it was super important to line up the faggoting on the yoke and the body of the top, so turning 1/4 inch under for the yoke (which was the outside-facing edge) had to be done perfectly. The instructions didn’t specify, but running a basting stitch along the edge and easing the curve was the ONLY way to do it.

I wasn’t sure of the sizing–I’m 5″1 and petite, but being small in the US doesn’t mean I’m small in Japan, so I went with a size 11 (no idea the actual conversion, but there were two sizes smaller). I should have gone with the 9, as the whole thing had to be taken in quite a bit to avoid looking like a giant tent (though I think that may have been the intention of the pattern). I also added a bust dart to make it slightly more shapely.

The top is lovely and I’m so pleased with the construction–my grandmother always extolled the importance of the finish on the inside of a garment–but it is quite sheer and needs a camisole under to be decent.