Finally a fashion sewing post!- and I think this is definitely one of the more interesting and cool things I’ve made.

I was looking through all my patterns, trying to decide what I should make, and I came across one of my older Burda World of Fashion magazines (one of my favourite sources of patterns). 

This edition of BWOF is from 2004, and I can honestly say that I was surprised by how many of the patterns were really cool and wearable. I was 13 in 2004, and I don’t know how many people can look back at their 13 year old self, or fashions of that time without at least cringing a little. But to my surprise, flipping through I did see lots of potential, and this one in particular caught my eye.

And I knew just the fabric to use- some bright orange stretch knit that I found when I was at Fabricland buying the stretch knit for the Sailor Moon costumes.

I picked this pattern mostly because it was so unusual, and I really wanted to challenge myself. The pattern is one of the strangest I’ve ever seen, the front/back piece is like a semi-circle that you cut a big slit into, and the sleeves come to a corner where they attach at the back. There are also so many elements to it- it is a cropped, long sleeve, v-neck, back draped top with a waistband that crosses over in the back.

As Burda instruction are misleading at best, I really just had to keep pinning all these pieces together and figure it out through trial and error. But it did come together.

Does anyone else find that when they work with stretch jersey late into the night, all those scrap pieces around you suddenly become all your accessories? Like that strip lying there looks like it would make the best head band to get that hair out of my face, and wow that piece could totally be braided into a bracelet, until suddenly you look like this at 2AM… just me? okay…

I didn’t use my serger on this (sorry mom), instead I just used a zigzag stitch. It was fairly simple overall, and once I figured out how it all went together it was just a matter of stitching it together. Although the facing for the neck was a little tricky to pin and make sure that it stayed straight. I should have probably basted it to make sure it would lie right, but I was too lazy. I also did some top stitching on the sleeves seams just to emphasize them and make them lie flat.

I love the final outcome, and I think it looks so cool. I don’t personally feel that I can pull of crop tops on their own, so I wear it with a tank underneath, but I still love wearing it!

Some pics with my dog Finnigan 🙂

– thinking about re-making this in purple, maybe a little less dramatic than the orange… off to the sewing cave!

xo erin