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Monday 12 January 2015

BurdaStyle 04/2011 - 118 Top

I had some scraps of polka dot jersey left over from my Style Arc Marita dress, too small to do anything proper with, but too big to just throw away also so I decided to make a top using plain black as a contrast.

Somewhere in my mind I remembered this pattern though it took a while to track it down, it's from the 4/2011 issue of Burda.  It was the colourblocked dress I remembered, but I used the top pattern.



With it's batwing (or are they dolman, is there a difference?) sleeves, it is a bit 1980's, but I am lacking in long sleeve tops and this is super quick and easy to make.



It should be possible to whip this top up in about an hour, but I ran into problems with the overly wide neckline.  Much as I am a fan of Burda I often have problems with their necklines being too wide or low, I should know better by now, but I didn't realise until I tried on the top quite how wide the neck was - on me it was ridiculous and only just balanced on the edge of my shoulders!

I messed about with adding a neckband but that didn't look right so in the end opted for the quick fix of changing the shoulder line as you can see from the row of pins in the photos below.



The original neckline is just turned and stitched, but after making the change above I found it difficult to get a nice finish at the corners so I faced the neckline with a strip of the jersey instead and topstitched that down with a twin needle.  The hems are just turned and twin needled.


The only other change I made was to shorten the sleeves because my scrap piece wasn't wide enough.  I could have added contrast bands, but just wanted to get it finished after the neckline hoo ha so I have 7/8 sleeves.  The original pattern sleeves are very long, I'd have needed to shorten them in any case.

So, it took much longer than it should have to make this simple top, but I like how this turned out.  It's a good pattern for using up smaller pieces of jersey, just beware of the neckline width.



Batwings!


18 comments:

  1. Lovely. I love a good batwing top. And polka dots!

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  2. That's very cute! Thanks for the warning about the neckline.

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  3. Very nice! I love, love the polka dots, and that the batwings aren't over the top. :-)

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  4. This is really cute, not over the top at all. I have several knit bits I could use, now I'll have to search for the pattern!

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  5. Oh yes, yes, YES!!!!! This looks fantastic on you!

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  6. I think it is dolman. Batwings begin at the waist. Regardless, cute top and great use of scraps.

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  7. I love polka dots! what a great use of your scraps, it turned out great!

    Helen

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  8. Great top, great save and love the use of remnant pieces. :)

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  9. Gosh that top looks so comfortable.

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  10. Love your top, the polka dots are fun and teamed with the plain black you have a very wearable top.

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  11. Very nice Allison. Thanks for the neckline warning!

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  12. Oohh. That's really nice. It's a really slimming batwing top that you don't find very often. Nice choice Allison.

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  13. Very cute! You make me want to pull this issue out. Nicely done.

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  14. ooo, this is REALLY nice. I'm normally not a great fan of the batwing, but this is nice and slimming, I might well pull out this issue again. And thanks for pointing out the neckline problem!

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  15. Great option for small remnants! I love the batwings.

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  16. Fantastic idea! I have lots of little jersey pieces swimming around. I'll have to give this a go. Great top. Love the polka dots!

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  17. Great way to use up your polka dot scrap. The dolman style is really cute! Now that I finally have a serger, I need to give this pattern a try. Thank you for the tip re: the neckline!

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  18. Great top, and a clever idea! Well done you!

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