I thought a dock down the street would be the most appropriate setting to shoot this top:
Paired with JCrew 3" chino shorts in modern red
This fabric was a fabulous score acquired on my recent trip to the Garment District: while getting ready to check out at Metro Textiles, I reached over to look at a bolt of fabric and bumped into a pile of propped up bolts. A small roll plopped out onto the floor, and I (mentally) gasped with delight... You see, I stalk net-a-porter, and I had recently saved an inspiration image of a shirt made of the fabric that just tapped my foot...
Detail of fabric from net-a-porter.com
I would have added sleeves to this top, but unfortunately, there was just over 1 yard left of this soft cotton voile, which was $12/yard. In fact, I was so tight on fabric that I had to reduce the seam allowance on the sides and finish the edges with the serger instead of French seams.
The pattern is M5433 by Palmer/Pletsch; I made the shorter version, but with no sleeves:
Because the fabric is relatively sheer I underlined the entire shirt with plain white cotton voile, which of course added to the construction time.
An inside-out view of the top showing the underlining.
This shirt took at least 8 hours to make - significantly longer than the 3 hours Palmer/Pletsch suggests this will take to sew. Ah well, perhaps next time now that I've sewn the pattern once. I cut a 10 in the shoulders/armscye and a 12 in the rest of the top; the top is quite fitted because of the 2 front darts and vertical back dart, which I think makes for a flattering button-up. I used vintage buttons from my large button jar stash.
The total cost of this designer fabric knock-off top was under $20. Why again doesn't everyone sew?
