Flared Cotton Top

My fascination with clothes continues. As does my desire to try stunts. The biggest issue I had with the previously made Kaftan Top was that it bellowed around the belly. Now I wanted to make something that was simple, but comfortable and flattering. So a basic flared top like the one shown here was the chosen victim.

The original tutorial was written with jersey fabric in mind, but I (the one with abundant foolhardiness) decided to experiment with a soft cotton instead. 'Why, Why when you are just learning?' you may ask. Well, for one, I love using cotton and for another, finding jersey or other soft knits in my area in a pain in the brain! The question of the day now was: Would the flared hem fall as gracefully in cotton, or would it stick out comically?

I am glad to say that it sits reasonably well. It's a li'l flared and fun, and thankfully, not comical.

I chose to use some prudence, and cut the sleeves without any flare. With my not-at-all-slim frame, I really can't carry off floppy sleeves; particularly in cotton. This gave the whole thing a rather simplistic look, but I like that.

The one mistake-ish I made, is that I tried to fold over the edges and stitch for the armholes, neck and hem. While this works perfectly for the armholes and the hem, it's not the best idea for a curved neckline! Cotton does not feel happy about being folded and stitched over... so I got a really narrow hem (and may just have skewed the neckline a bit at that).






 At this point I tried the top on, and it kinda floated around me a little funnily.

To ensure that it fit, I put in darts at the back. This image and tutorial supplied by Melanie Rose gives an idea of the various ways to use darts in different locations. I put in two darts in the back (the orange markings for the back in the diagram), and suddenly the thing looked just purty!







And so, the top was ready for use. I did a library run in it, and it felt really comfy and felt good. Happy days!

Simple Kaftan Top

When I study, I crave shopping for clothes.
How reading about the theories and applications of Psychology connects to the desire to go forth and buy items of clothing is, and probably shall always remain a mystery to my simple mind. But there does exist a connection. So when I started preparing for my PhD., there came that inane desire to go into a shop filled with clothes and get confused. May I point out here, I presently have neither the patience nor the energy required to try out a gazillion clothes to find something that fit me and looked kinda-sorta pretty at the same time!

A disaster in the making you say? The husband to deal with an academically saturated and shopping frustrated monster? May have been.... Except, this time I was prepared with a healthier solution! For some time now, I have been collecting sewing patterns and techniques to try out. So I decided to pull out cloth stowed away, and make a few muslins and see if making clothes was a real option (for the uninitiated, a muslin is a trial item made with simpler / less expensive material before making something with a really expensive material). A little sewing every couple of days has kept me mostly out of the shops for a good 2.5 months now. :)

Kaftan top's seem very 'in' apparently, so i decided to try making one. I followed this really simple pattern, but cut the material to a little below Hip - length. Once I'd made the basic top, I decided to try my hand at shirring as well.

That is where I learnt a VERY important lesson: Shirring gathers the cloth in a LOT. So I snipped the elastic thread in a little over half the back. But thanks to the gathers in the front, the back actually fits pretty decently too.

The arm - holes were just right, and the fit is very comfortable. I also like to pretend that my waist feels flattered (no no, don't disillusion me). But the most fun is the wide boat neck. The next photo show's off the neck 

(The mania - like expression is not real. Shri demanded I 'keep my eyes open'. This is what happened!)

The next time, I'm going to add some width to the front piece, and let the extra material form a slight cowl at the neck. It'll feel more comfy; and may even look more classy!

This one's pretty decent for a simple day out though. I wore it out just yesterday, and it was comfortable, and with the right jewelry, looked quite stylish, I thought. :)