FINISHED! Paris almost cropped box with culottes

In January, I met up with Inna, Jo, Lisa, Julie , Barbara. Ninie (later for dinner) in Paris. Gosh it was such a great day and night!! I'm still to properly write up where we went and what I bought but the last shop that we went to was a very special place De Gilles Tissus (156, rue de la Roquette  75011) . I bought one piece. A metre only of this (not cheap) 1970s vintage wool, the selvedge said G Petillault Paris. Well how could I leave it there?! The colour, apart from matching Inna's coat, is absolute perfection. The original plan was to make a boxy top out of it. So I did.  

I wanted my boxy top to have a roundish neck, dropped shoulders and a kick at the bottom. I think it works.  Unbelievably, I found it difficult to find a good box top that I liked/had so reworked what looks to be the only pattern (from recent makes) that I own. I adjusted the back piece so that all the checks lined up at the shoulder. The back has a button closure.

Where possible, the seams are finished, opened and then sewed down or like on the sleeve, I finished the sleeve together and then stitched down. I lined it with a blue voile. I had some slippery stuff in the stash, but felt a bit anxious with this make as I so wanted it to be great, so went with the voile. It makes it a bit more difficult to wear a shirt underneath but that's ok.

Ok, so it's not perfect. I could have shortened the sleeves by an inch but the biggest thing is my lack of courage with the length.  I think I wanted it to be a crop, but at the last minute chickened out and made it an almost crop. The length of this top needs a shirt underneath to be worn with skinny jeans for me.  It is ok with these culottes but could have been shorter to show the high waist of the culottes and be just a bit more flattering - but if I'd done that then I feel it would have been too short to wear with anything else... so maybe it's a good compromise after all.

Culottes I hear you say! Another pair!?? Yep.  I made the top and knew immediately that it needed a pair of Girl Friday Culottes.  Hooray for stash. Last year I bought this slightly textured (with a bit of stretch) navy wool from Addicted to Fabric, to make a pair of Colette Clover pants... they never got made because frankly I never felt like sewing up something so 'basic wardrobe'. But these fit my wardrobe perfectly.  And so refreshing to make something with plain fabric! I think I'm still making my culottes a size too big, but am managing to fix it in the waist band. You would think after this pair and this one I'd have nailed this fit aspect!

Despite any minor imperfections with the proportions of the top, I'm really happy with this whole outfit. In fact, Jo just wrote a post proclaiming the virtues of this very silhouette and I am in total agreement. It is so comfortable, and I'm just so happy I have this top in my wardrobe that just about matches the idea I had in Paris and reminds me of that great day.