knitting neels

Here’s one that I planned since before Christmas. It’s another Sorbetto top – you can see the first one I made here. It’s a neat little top with endless possibilities for embellishment.

I used this out of scraps leftover from lining my pleated skirt and the very first Anna dress I made. I was stuck for width so I cut the pleat from a separate piece. I thought it was going to be quite obvious but isn’t very at all.

The lace trim I got from Rubanesque for about €2/m. I had a decent amount left over because I had vague thoughts about using it for the armholes as well. Here’s a close up of the applique. My original intention was to use a trim that I could sew into the seams of the pleat but I couldn’t find any that was narrow enough, so I chose this instead. But given its structure, I thought that machining it on would ruin it so I sewed it all on by hand. Laborious but it gave a neat finish.

I ended up cutting separate facings for the neck and armholes because I figured it would look neater in the finish. And, despite me adding extra length to my pieces, it still worked out quite cropped. It just comes down to my hip. I really didn’t have enough to turn a decent hem so I busted out some bias tape, attached one side and hand-stitched down the other. I suppose normally you’d turn in the bias tape and stitch it down but I didn’t want a bulky hem so I left it open.

Between the lace trim, the binding and the facings, there was a lot of finishing by hand in this project. But the upside was that I used a lot of otherwise unusable fabric and got a very comfortable top for going out in or (more likely) playing in. I’m also glad I made this up with the pleat because, although I think this top is nice, I think I prefer my original one without the pleat.

Things are starting to get busy around here. This project is the last of my ‘slow January’ output: tomorrow I pick up the score for an opera which we’ll be rehearsing all February, I enter piano and organ competitions, I have my first session coaching students for Leaving Cert. practicals; the weekend, I start working on a big programme with my flautist for a concert in April. I knew it’d never last… but here are some progress photos from what I’ve been working on this week. Remember that ’60s blouse pattern I got on Etsy?

I was thrilled to find that I had enough fabric for the long sleeved version. Gathering said sleeves into cuffs, not so much.