New Look with Fish

My friend, Jessica, passed this fabric along to me.

Fish fabric! In nice, bright colors that mesh with most of my wardrobe.

Jessica acquired it from her friend, Susan, who was cleaning out her stash. It's cotton; a piece about a yard long. Small enough so I thought about making something for my grand daughter. But, nope, I decided to try to eke out something for me instead.

After some thought, I hauled out New Look 6598. I've made this top a bunch of times over the years. It's dated 2002 and I probably bought it right about then. View E, the sleeveless version without a collar, can be squeezed out of an amazingly small chunk of fabric.

A bit of pattern Tetris and, presto, I have a new summer top.

We've had a chilly, drippy spring here on the Central Coast. The last few days have been glorious though; sunny and breezy. Warm enough so that sitting in the yard in shorts and a sleeveless top is a real possibility.

This pattern has fisheye (ha ha!) darts front and back so it has some shape. The pattern has little waist ties inserted in the back darts, but I leave those out. I also skip the facings for the armscyes and do a bias binding finish instead.

It's a nice, simple top that I'm sure I'll keep making as the years go by.

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.

Stash Enhancement

My friend Molly's parents are downsizing and her mother very kindly offered to pass along her fabric stash. And Molly very kindly thought of me.

This was just the kind of stash a sewist loves to inherit; only a few pieces, but each is very choice.

One cut was about two yards of batik. Very nice quality; looks like it actually came from Southeast Asia, rather than an American quilting emporium.

New Look 6598 in batik

The colors are soft, but not quite as soft as they look in the photo above. Here's an indoor photo, which I think is closer to the real colors.

Colors are truer in this photo

The Hart's ladies liked this fabric as much as I do. They got all involved in helping me pick the perfect buttons.

Perfect button

I didn't have a lot of fabric to work with, because the yardage was narrow. After faffing about in the pattern drawer, I selected New Look 6598, which just fit.

I've made this top a few times before - looks like I got it way back in 2002. Heck, practically vintage! I'm not wild about the fit of the sleeve on this pattern, but I do enjoy my sleeveless makes. This time I finished the arm scythe with bias tape instead of the facings included with the pattern. I like this finish much better; those pesky facings keep popping out on my earlier versions. I like the clean look of the collar-less neckline and it's a nice canvas for cute cotton prints. I have one iteration that's covered in coffee cups.

Side view

I couldn't do too much about pattern matching, given my limited yardage, but I think things worked out pretty well. At least I don't have any totally awkward flower placement going on.

Not really watching a bird, just trying not to  smile like a serial murderer

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.

Oh, and my new stash includes two dress lengths of what I'm pretty sure is Liberty.