Simplicity Star Sewist Entry

Good afternoon Limbos and Ginjoints.

I write to you today with my entry for the Simplicity Star Sewist competition. To give a little background Simplicity are running a competition where they are sending entrants one of their patterns to put their own creative stamp on. I did wonder if my idea was taking my own stamp too far, then I thought well they did say there were no rules....

There are three options: a shift dress, a vintage top or a skirt. I oped for the vintage category and went for the top which is available here. As mentioned previously I had done a dry run of this pattern where I'd followed the pattern as instructed....kinda. What's one little fastening alteration between friends?

This is the pattern illustration...

and this is what happens when I go hack-happy.

As this is a 60s era pattern I wanted to stay in that era and for reasons best known only to me when I think of 60s I picture monochrome, gathered sleeves and mesh. I also picture heavy eyeliner, a beehive hairdo and baby pink lipstick. This may or may not have happened or I'm just really influenced by a fancy dress view of the 60s. Either way that's the route I chose to go.

Oooo arty

I had considered making the main body in scuba fabric however being unable to find any in the fabric shop I happened to be in at the time I went for a heavy weight jersey. I kept the mesh though because I'd never sewn with it before and it's always a good idea to use something that you utterly can't estimate the outcome of when you're looking to impress. Right?

It was naughty so we made it stand in the corner and think about what it did.

So alterations made to the pattern:

• Cut the pattern in two below the sleeve to make a mesh yoke
• Extended the sleeves to the wrist
• Gathered the sleeves into the cuff
• Cut several sizes below my own to get rid of the majority of the ease
• Got rid of the facings on the neckline
• Kept the additional couple of inches to the length because of my long torso and aversion to midriff baring 

Look at the top stitching! Look at it!

Speaking of the neckline it was going to be bias bound with the jersey however as the neckline is a little high (I forgot to lower it from the dry run) and the mesh a bit stretchy so it created a distinctly messy trim which, to add insult to injury, was trying to garrote me. I decided therefore to just cut the whole thing off and leave the neckline raw allowing it to fold back on itself in a slightly cowl like fashion.

Lastly a few words about the photography. You may notice the dress form is not my usual stunt double but is in fact borrowed from my best friend (it's so darn skinny!). The top is not so ridiculously low cut as it appears, the dress form is just a lot smaller than me. You will also notice the photos are not my usual slightly rubbish fare due to the assistance of her husband who is an excellent photographer and showed me how to get the best out of my little camera. He said many words on the matter of how to make the photos presentable many of which I recognised to be from the English language but lost me completely. 

The gold light makes me think of alien invasions, not sure why

What I did take away was the need to make a reflective surface for light bouncing (that's the technical term yeah?). If you need me I'll be in the garage playing with tinfoil and gold spray paint which will also be helpful when I move into my 70s glamrock phase.