Coral shirring!

Over at Pattern Review there is a new contest, "New to Me Pattern Company" and thinking about it, I realised that I have a couple of Christine Jonson's patterns and thought I would make up the Shirred Top in a gorgeous coral knit that my DS gifted to me a couple of Christmas's ago.

The reviews of the pattern over at Pattern Review say it is a snug fit and seeing I was inbetween the XS and SM sizes I decided to play it safe and cut out a size SM and did the following pattern adjustments:

• shortened the lower bodice length by 4cm
• shortened the short sleeve by 2cm

This pattern is very fabric hungry as the top pieces are on the fold and you cut 2 of them each, so I changed the top back and top front pattern pieces to a single layer, as my knit is 150cm wide and this worked out a lot better.

I basted the front and back together using the 1.5cm seam allowance and tried it on however it was a bit snug so I stitched it permanently together with 6mm seam allowances essentially meaning it is a size MD.

I used my Coverstitch to stitch the neckline edges.

The rest of the pattern went together fairly quickly until I came to the sleeves which gave me a bit of grief, so this is when I did a Full Arm adjustment (Fit for Real People, page 169) of 1.5cm

and cut out another set of sleeves! They do look much better.

My top is still very snug and looks like I need to do a small FBA as well as a gasposis for the back neckline.

I really like how the ruching looks on the side seams, which surprisingly doesn't look like it adds any bulk.

This is quite a comfortable top to wear.

Still making up my mind if it will be another top for my SWAP, however at this stage I'm not 100% certain where it will fit in.

******************
2014 Stash Out: 5.2 m
2014 Stash In: 31.75 m