Ama Cowlneck tops for summer

Kia ora! Sadly summer is now well gone here in New Zealand, but given that some of you are looking forward to when summer arrives I thought it's not to late to share some of my summer sewing with you.

Back in 2015 (wow!) I made the AMA Cowlneck maxi dress by Named Clothing Patterns, which I still enjoy wearing by the way. I had always thought that the top half would be great as a top or a casual throw over a swimsuit. In February I actually got to work on the idea ...

 

The pattern pieces for the maxi dress are joined at the waist, so I simply took took the top pattern pieces and extended them my 9". For this version I followed the lines of the side seam when extending the length, but they weren't straight, so this top is very snug around the hips.

side seam curves toward the back

It's made with some fabric from AS Fabrics which I picked up for just $5 per metre (although I wouldn't have paid anything more for it!)
Outer fabric: 0.92m Brown/Blue/White abstract splash chiffon
Lining fabric: 0.92m polyester georgette, has a slight crepe texture

It drapes beautifully and is super light, perfect for summer. You'll see from the pic that I switched the fabrics around for the back insert. Lining on the outside.

It seemed such an easy make and a really enjoyable sew that I immediately went to the fabric stash and selected another piece of fabric to make a second version - this time fixing the room around the hips by extending the side seam of the front pattern piece straight down parallel to the grain line.

This version is made with some beautiful silk crepe de chine from Drapers Fabrics and lined with some white cotton polyester.

Sadly it appears that Named Clothing Patterns no longer have this pattern available in their store. But hey, any of their patterns are worth buying ... if only I could sew all day every day, I would make all their patterns.

Smitten by Holly

When By Hand London released the Holly Jumpsuit I was rather smitten by the wide legged, cowl neck version and every one I saw in the blogisphere convinced me it was a pattern I needed to sew this summer.

While I agree a jumpsuit can leave you feeling rather vulnerable when you need to visit the loo, I figured that I would probably only wear it during the summer months and it wouldn't be any worse than going to the bathroom in a bikini!  Totally normal for summer right?

I decided that my first version needed to be beach/weekend wear, so went with the top of version 1 and the shorts from version 2 - lengthened to me more age appropriate for me.  I added 2" to the length of the pattern shorts.

Floral - Summer - Wiggle

This cute little baby is my first ever full on floral dress (can you believe it!), and I am super in love with it.  Yay for the gorgeous summer days we've been having lately - no hanging around in the wardrobe for this dress.

As some of you might know I'm a little obsessed with Instagram atm and this wee obsession allowed me to be one of three lucky people to get a discounted 'end of stock' pattern from Blueginerdoll.  Abbey had rebranded all her pattern packaging and was looking to off-load the last of the 'old' Billie Jean patterns.

Morphing patterns together

This was one of those projects that I began in 2012 but didn't finish until just recently.  Actually by recently I mean 3 weeks ago! It's a top that I morphed together from two patterns, and made some tweaks here and there to get exactly what I was looking for.

The base pattern is New Look 6713   The pattern provided for an a-symmetrical or cow-neck front, neither of which was what I wanted, so I took the a-symmetrical pattern piece and cut it on the fold at the centre front so both sides were the same.

Smart Casual Mila

Yesterday I finished sewing the hooks & eyes, as the finishing touch, to my Mila dress.  After a wash 'n dry I was able to wear it to work today.  What do you think?

(excuse the no shoes - I couldn't wait to get them off my feet after a day at the office!)

Open source sewing: The Mila Dress

For my next project I have chosen an independent pattern from Mila Fashion on the Burda website.  This is the first time I have downloaded a pattern from the website, printed and assembled it.  I was pleasantly surprised how easy this exercise was; something I would definitely do again.