Draped Tee in Silk-Cotton Jersey

This top is also part of a review I’ll be posting tomorrow on the new book BurdaStyle Modern Sewing – Wardrobe Essentials . I often just review books by posting a finished garment, but I enjoyed summarizing all of the patterns in the last book I reviewed, and adding all of the pattern photos from this book to all of these photos and all of this text just felt like too much. So, come back tomorrow for a look at a ton more BurdaStyle patterns!

This month I wanted a quick make, something that would leave me with plenty of time for holiday cheer… and chasing Baby Girl all around the house! She’s now crawling, pulling up, and cruising around! In fact, she’s so busy these days that I only have time to sew and blog while she’s sleeping. I’ve had to resort to taking indoor shots here because I was only able to sneak in camera time during one of her noontime naps. The best windows in the house are in the living room and dining room, two rooms which are currently covered in Christmas decorations, baby toys, kitchen remodel junk, and all of our artwork. After trying various angles with the camera on the tripod, I decided that you get the artwork. Not because I’m trying to be artsy, but simply because it was the clearest space with the best light. Life is crazy these days! Ha! Anyway, I know you’re here for the sewing, so I’ll get on with it!

Lately I’ve found that my quickest makes are typically knit garments. Just serge and go! Mood Fabrics has quite a large selection of jerseys online, and after a lot of deliberation, I ended up choosing this “famous designer” silk-cotton jersey. Tough it seemed like it would pair well with my coral Nina cardigan, which I’ve been wearing a lot lately, it also felt a bit like a spring-season fabric. There were limited quantities available, so I decided to pounce. I’ve see too many great fabrics disappear before I got to them. Plus, who doesn’t like a bit of color to liven up a gray winter?

This fabric has a lovely drape and is incredibly soft, but it is also a bit sheer. When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to make with it, I kept coming back to the fact that it felt like a really fancy t-shirt fabric to me. I ended up pairing it with the BurdaStyle 11/2011 Knit Wrap Top #114A pattern that I found in the new book BurdaStyle Modern Sewing – Wardrobe Essentials - a basic long-sleeved tee with a fancy draped, wrap-style front.

One of the interesting features of this pattern are its dropped shoulders. I feel like so much of my time “sewing” is actually spent fitting patterns, so it was a bit weird for me to have a shoulder seam that was not at my shoulder. But, I decided to roll with it since that’s the way the pattern was designed.

Another thing I found was the pattern is designed so that the crossover wrap section wants to sit under my bust even though its sewn into the side seam just below the arm hole. I was counting on the double layer of semi-sheer fabric giving me a bit of modesty, but only my belly gets double coverage! At first I thought the culprit was the drape of the fabric, but the crossover wrap falls in exactly the same place on the BurdaStyle model!

The pattern is also really long, not only in the body but also in the sleeves. I ended up not hemming it since I liked the way the thin raw edges were rolling, so it’s an inch or so longer than the pattern intended, but it would be a very long top regardless. The instructions say the sleeves are meant to be long since they’re meant to be worn gathered at the wrists, but they’re so long I can completely cover my hands and then some!

The pattern also features a back yoke that is actually an extension of the front that wraps across the shoulders and around to the top of the back. I really want to make this pattern again in a striped fabric since I think the way this yoke is designed would make the stripes turn out incredibly neat. The seams are a bit hard to figure out at first when you’re looking at the pattern, but I think horizontal stripes at the front waist would become vertical stripes at the shoulders and back yoke, which would contrast nicely with horizontal stripes across the main back piece.

All in all I think this top is a good pairing of a beautiful fabric with an interesting pattern. I’ve been wearing it a ton, and my husband likes it, so that’s a successful quick make in my book!

This post can also be found on Mood Sewing Network. I used my MSN allowance towards the purchase of the fabric. Also, Interweave/F W sent me BurdaStyle Modern Sewing – Wardrobe Essentials for review, which I plan to officially have up tomorrow. If you like what you’ve seen and buy the book through the Amazon affiliate link above, a few pennies will end up in my pocket. Neither the free fabric and book nor those pennies are enough to bias my opinion. (Maybe if someone wanted to pay for my kitchen renovation… Ha!)