FINISHED! A squiggly Dolores

Last November I bought this blue stretch crepe 'squiggly print' knit at spotlight and immediately knew it was going to be a Dolores Batwing top. Well at first I thought a Dolores dress, but regardless it's destiny was known immediately. I finally got around to buying the pattern last week now here it is.  

First up, I just have to say how much I adore these arms.  They have this incredible optical illusion going whereby it makes me feel like I have skinny arms.  I really really love the connection of the sleeve with the body of the top. I think it has a bit of an edge to it. In fact, I'm not really a batwing wearer but this feature has completely won me.  Completely!

I had to go to the copy shop last weekend to print out some things, so thought I'd try the copy shop option on this pattern. What a treat!  I am defnitely #teampdf and I love to cut and tape in front of the TV but this was a nice little present to myself.  As I said, I originally intended this to be a dress so cut it out as a dress.  It looked nice as a dress, but just didn't feel like me.  In the end it was either make it up as a dress and give it away or cut it into a top and see how that felt on. Selfishness ruled and I'm so glad. The top is great. Despite being a knit - which I rarely wear, I feel like this is fitting in well with my wardrobe and confidently wore it to my son's birthday party today. 

A few sewing notes now. It's sewn up on the overlocker. I reinforced the shoulders with tape, which isn't in the pattern, but I've got into that habit now.  

The pattern calls for attaching the binding on each side and then joining up later. I thought I could outsmart Zoe (really!?) and attach the binding in the round to make it so much neater on the inside. Wah - first attachment, there was a load of gape at the shoulders even though I reduced the length. Anyway, I unpicked it, yes, unpicked the overlocking, took another little bit off and restitched it again!  Still drape at the shoulder corners. Well of course there was because of the style! Doh Kirsty. In the end I pinched a tiny triangle on the shoulders and overlocked down - as they should have been done in the first place. Lesson learnt. Neck sits perfectly now.

The sleeves and hem are twin stitched. I hemmed this twice as I didn't quite like the length initially and after my several attempts at the neckline I felt I owed the hem a little attention. I probably should have put some tape on the hem, but I just turned it over which is fine.   

This is a really easy and quick make (ok, this one not so quick, but next time..). Thanks Zoe for a great little pattern!