Itch to Stitch Bainbridge

We are having a La Niña winter, which means warmer than usual where I am. In fact, I’m writing this post out on the sunny patio in a cotton blouse and jeans. But I made this fleece pullover anyway in case it does get colder, or we take a trip this spring. 

Bainbridge is a cute pullover because it combines fleece or a stable knit with a woven placket and bias bindings, so you can trim it up with any of your pretty woven prints. I used part of a dress that I never wore for my woven bits. It happened to be a fantastic coordinating color for my light weight fleece. The embossed design fleece had the brand name Rainbeau, and it is ultra soft as well as being warm. 

This design has bust darts, so the fit is a little more refined that most RTW of this style. The lower front is a separate pattern piece, which makes the placket easy to sew. Pockets are also easy to sew.

The pattern also calls for snaps, and I had just enough of my old Snap Source supply left to do up the front. Snap Source is no longer in business, so their snap setter tools are now in the trash. I wish that didn’t happen so often. 

Alterations: the bust dart needed to be lowered, and I needed extra room at the hip. In the instructions they cover how to blend sizes, but the procedure seemed really convoluted to me. I just slashed and spread the pattern lower front and back to gain the extra room. The thing to remember is that then the pocket needs to be redrawn so that the bottom edge matches the bottom edge of the lower front. They both end up being bound together with bias tape. 

Would I make this again? I don’t know. For some reason, after cutting this out, I wasn’t excited about working on the project. This is not the fault of the pattern; I think I just don’t like working with fleece. But I have a rule I’ve stuck with for a couple of decades now: I don’t get to start another garment, not even cut it out, until I finish what I’m working on. This has kept me free of UFO guilt, which is so easy to lapse into. Beginning something is fun and exciting. Finishing is tedious and hard. 

Anyway, I know I’ll be glad to have this top the next time we go to Big Bend in the winter. It’s super soft and snuggly. 

Itch To Stitch Vikos x 2

 

This is a pattern that I think will be very versatile because it can be reworked many ways. As it is, it has a bit of a folklorish vibe to me because of the neckline and wide topstitched facing. It reminds me of a smock or some of the old patterns from Folkwear, except that Vikos is not a hugely voluminous cut. It can be either a top or a dress, and comes with a short sleeve or a 3/4 sleeve that can be finished with a vented cuff or rolled up with a tab.

I did some flat pattern measuring before making up what ended up being a wearable muslin. The sizing chart put me in the same size as my previous Itch To Stitch top and that consistency gave me confidence. Before cutting the muslin, I widened the sleeve 1/2", lowered the bust dart, shortened the top by 1-1/4" (it's fairly long), and graded out two sizes at the hip. I made all these changes as I traced the pattern, hoping that I could keep the tracing nice and neat and maybe not need to re-do it.

the muslin

The muslin was made from a drapey rayon/linen blend left over from a pair of Style Arc Bob pants. I do make quite a few pants but don't put them on the blog often because it is such an ordeal to get decent photos of them. Back to Vikos - I think the very short sleeve included with the pattern is cute, but wanted more coverage. The sleeves on the muslin are cut elbow length because that's all the fabric I had. I was pleased with the fit except that it seemed like there should be a little more uptake on the dart. That was the only fitting change made after the muslin.

the fixed boo-boo

When the top was laundered to get it ready for its glamour shot, the fabric frayed right at the base of the notch. It's pretty narrow there where you need to clip and I thought I went right down the center. I hope I saved it by tucking the ends in, applying a drop of Fray Block, and clamping it in a hemostat to dry. When you look closely you can see the fix, but it's not glaring enough to bother me. I hope this will hold up through the next wash. I also learned from this test garment to use interfacing with more body to keep the corners of the neckline from flopping open.

the cuff

The second version was made from Brussels Washer, another rayon/linen blend that is slightly heavier than the test version. For this one I was able to make the cute vented cuff. This is just the sort of detail I like.  On me, the 3/4 sleeve is a bit long and I'll shorten it next time. And on this one I went ahead and applied some Fray Block to the tip of the neckline slit before washing.

Here's the lovely bathroom mirror photo of me wearing it. Both my versions were made from drapey fabrics which allow the neckline to splay open a bit (even with stiffer interfacing) causing the armscye to droop down the arm a little. Maybe a slight narrowing of the shoulder is in order. I can see making this again, turning the facing to the outside and maybe embellishing it with some pintucks or contrast topstitching. I might also make a tracing with a plain scoop neckline and use this pattern as a basic woven top. Really, you could transfer all kinds of necklines onto it. It would work well with a little popover-type placket, too. Vikos may well reappear on the blog in other iterations.

Itch to Stitch Seychelles Top

 This is my first experience with Itch to Stitch and it won't be the last. They recently came out with a new dress pattern (with a new release discount) that I liked, but wasn't sure about purchasing because I have a big stack of Burda magazines where I could probably find something to recreate it with and ItS was an unknown. Then I remembered that I already had their Seychelles top to make up and evaluate.

Seychelles is somewhat like a woven T top, with an interesting shoulder detail. I'm always on the lookout for things like that because they balance out my figure. The armscyes of Seychelles are cut in somewhat, and the sleeve cap is pleated. Other than that, it has a straightforward darted bodice and faced V neck. The pattern has separate front pieces for each cup size.

Step 1 was figuring out what size to use. The instructions walk you through this, and they had me in a 10 with the C front. I'm normally a 14-16-or even 18 in top sizes and a size 10 seemed crazy to me. The instructions also say to make a muslin (always good advice) so you can be sure I did, expecting them to be proved wrong.

It seems that size 10 was correct!😲 There did need to be a couple of adjustments, but they were easy. I needed to lower the bust dart 1-3/8", widen the sleeve, and widen the hip. The sleeve and hip changes were accomplished just by blending out to one of the larger sizes. I should also mention that the top is meant to be fairly long and I shortened it quite a bit.

 The dart was relocated like this (note: this diagram is from a different pattern):

draw a line through the dart point, parallel to the grainline

Draw a box around the dart, cut it out, and slide it straight down the amount needed

true up your cutting lines (green) 

This is the way my pattern piece looked after the alteration. You can see that I also needed to add extra at the hip.

This method preserves the original angle of the dart. 

The top is really straightforward sewing. The only fiddly part is making the pleats on the sleeves, but look how cute they are. The instructions cover everything, with links to online help.

The fabric is from Miss Matatabi and is the weight of a lawn.

I'm delighted with the way this top fits and feels. So yes, I did go back and buy the dress pattern I wanted, on the last day of the sale!