Fair Weather Friends

I'm headed to a more southerly latitude soon.

Time to lean forward with some new warm weather tops!

First, here's HotPatterns 101, the now out-of-print, "No Sweat Easy Sew Bubblelicious Top and Skirt". I made the top, using some fine cotton that I had left over from a previous project. This month's Vogue Magazine has a photo spread featuring clothing with a floral print; many of the prints are pretty wild. I am a fan of large prints to begin with, I used floral cotton to create a simple 'peasant' style top. The top design has a 'bubble' hem (elasticized). But since my fabric didn't flow too well, and I am no fan of looking like a bubble, so I let my hem flow. There was so much extra fabric in the design that I removed a total of 5 inches from the sides all the way to the bottom of this shirt because my fabric is not flowy. It was so huge on me that it was not working at all. Now, I have kind of a 'trapeze' look going (not really full trapeze, just roomy I guess... ) and it will work quite comfortably. Certainly this is not a look to turn heads in the street with fabulous figure flattery, but this top will be great and airy to wear when the humid heat comes on strong. Anyway, I don't want to be the center of attention all the time!

I bound my sleeves with bias tape, made from 1 1/2 inch width self fabric. This was really easy. Bias just loves to hug curves. 100 percent cotton. No muss no fuss. The extra fabric adds some stiffness to the hem, too, widening the shoulder line a bit.




Always room for a new halter top here at Cat Fur Studio. Here's Vogue 8401. This is an older pattern as well. This is a very lightweight 'onionskin' knit, which was very nice for this project. This knit is a few years old. I made a shorter version of this design a few years ago in leopard rayon print. I am going to wear this one with dark blue leggings (which I have not yet made). For now, I'm showing it with black leggings so you can get some idea of how it will look. The blue leggings will be just below the knee. Not as much contrast will be a good thing.

One can not have too many black skirts, right? Here's my latest - Christine Jonson's Pencil Skirt.

I'm selling fabric. Check out my etsy store, FabricTrove. My prices are low, low, how low can I go! But there's more. For blog readers, use discount code BLOG10 to get a 10% discount. If you see more than 1 piece that you'd like, contact me before buying. I may be able to give you a shipping discount. Oh, but I only ship within the domestic US. Sorry in advance if you're outside the US.