This top came about because the fabric made such a good coordinate with a travel wardrobe that is needed soon. The print seemed to need a pattern that is a little more femme than the minimalist things I'm usually attracted to. Ruffles and flounces are beyond tolerance, but I felt like some shoulder gathers would be okay. Neither my Ottobre nor Burda collections had what I was looking for, but the Ballad did. This pattern had been pronounced "good" by people I trust (not influencers) so I gave it a chance.
Fabric is a lovely cotton lawn from Miss Matatabi.
A quickie muslin led me to the alterations: chose size L grading out to XL below the waist notch, 3/8" forward shoulder rotating the sleeve cap a corresponding 3/8", and smoothed out the LN trademark scoop in the front armscye. The bishop sleeve is shorter than drafted because of a shortage of fabric. I think I also placed the lower back (which is gathered into a yoke) 1/2" from the fabric fold when cutting, giving me another extra 1" fit insurance there.
Bathroom mirror shot is closer to the actual color. The sleeves are below elbow, which is fine. I didn't make any changes to length, and think it's good to wear with jeans or moderate-width pants this way. If it was supposed to go with leggings, extra length would be required.
I can often just hand baste sleeves, easing them in as I go, but this pattern really needed the double row of machine basting stitches to draw up the excess. The rest of the construction was easy and straightforward.
Buttons. Suddenly getting buttons is so hard! For a while, even though JoAnn's had its shortcomings, you could still get a good selection of buttons there. When that source dried up, there was a thrift store nearby where I could pick up things on special sale to harvest buttons. My last button purchase was on Amazon where I bought a bag of 200? 300? lots of blue buttons for just a few dollars. They were mostly different kinds of shirt buttons and some of them got used for this project.
This top will be a great addition to the travel wardrobe I'm getting together. Originally I thought the key color for the group would be indigo, but after a lot of adding and rejecting the color scheme morphed into gray/natural/teal. That was unexpected! There is both gray and teal in the print of this fabric, and it can be worn with all the bottoms I'm planning to take.
When everything is all firmed up, I'll probably do a little checklist of what I'm taking along with some photos and make a little blog post about it.
Reaction to the Ballad pattern: I like it and will likely make it again. I skipped the shirring that sets this pattern apart from other similar styles, but would like to attempt that some time with a solid color fabric that would show it off.
This is really pretty! I suspect this is going to get a lot of wear.
ReplyDeleteI've had this pattern for a while, but I've never even printed it out. Thank you for the inspiration to give this a try. I like the idea of adding back width to help with my hips. I just finished a dress with sleeves this length (fabric limitations as well), and I think I'm going to enjoy them.