This month’s Mood Sewing Network challenge was to make something inspired by the Spring 2014 Ready-To-Wear Fashion shows, and it was just that: a challenge. I actually love to watch fashion shows. Sometimes you can catch the live feed on youtube and see the collections exactly when everyone who’s actually at the fashion shows gets to see them. (Except don’t watch them with your male children. Designers love to send unlined things down the runway. Ahem.) Anyway, I thought this challenge would be easy. I already had a slew of designer garments pinned in my sewing inspiration folder. I’ll spare you all the boring details, but I could not find the right pattern for the dress in my mind’s eye. Even after making a muslin of what I thought would work didn’t look right. Time ticked by. I decided instead to make a silk top inspired by this Nicole Miller look:
I used Butterick 6024 and some beautiful cornflower blue silk charmeuse from Moodfabrics.com to make my top. I picked that pattern because it had the front tucks like my example blouse. Even though it was for a loose-fitting blouse and the Nicole Miller was more fitted, I thought I could make it work if I made the smallest size. I also thought the silk charmeuse would be light and slinky enough to pull off all those tucks and not puff out.
I ended up having to iron my pleats down because they did not want to be effortless and billowy. A silk chiffon would have worked better. I’m not sold on the loose crop top being the best silhouette for my body type. Maybe I’m just not use to seeing myself it this type of garment.
The fabric sewed beautifully and is a lovely color. I used the matte side for this blouse, not wanting to draw attention away from the tucks. I also washed and dried it before cutting it out. This gal does not dry clean only summer blouses. Sometimes I find that silks will fade a bit upon going through the laundry but that is worth it to me to not have to dry clean.
All the edges were finished with bias bindings included with the pattern. The bottom hem is a simple 5/8″ double hem.
Sometimes you take a risk and end up surprised by how good it came out, but other times you try something new that just doesn’t suit. I’m thinking this may fall into the latter category.