Lunching with Imogen

Lovely Imogen, how delightful you are! Described on the packet as a Shakespearean heroine “steadfast, loyal and an all round good egg’, I feel much the same about this top. She isn’t a show pony. No crazy bells & whistles here kids. Just a lovely drape, a flattering neckline, and that most wonderful of things for this fair maiden, sleeves!

The fabric is a rayon from Spotlight (on sale!), despite my previous issues sewing this slippery minx of a fabric, the birds were irresistible. I was concerned the pink wasn’t really me, but, you know,  birds. The very next week I noticed a work colleague in a shirt made of the same fabric, purchased from Zara in Melbourne. After that, two separate TV presenters , also wearing the same fabric. Birds are popular it would seem!

This is my second make from Sew Me Something, and I wont deny it, I have a pattern company lady crush going on here. Pattern companies design based on a particular shape (their “block”) , grading up and down from that basic shape to create different sizes. Finding a company that works for your shape is gold. I realized recently that while I love for instance Tilly & the Buttons styling, the patterns are simply not designed for my shape. Tilly is a wee wisp of a thing, and her patterns look amazing on her shape. I made a Bettine & looked quite frankly, dumpy.

Sewaholic patterns are designed for pear shaped woman with smaller busts, again, not everything is going to work on my DD’s! Don’t get me wrong, of course you’re going to design for your shape, why wouldn’t you? But having the time/patience to find what works is worth it, however tricky.

I made a straight size 20, with no alterations required (hooray!). The fit is loose, without being baggy, gathering around the neckline with a nice placket detail at the front, and shaped hem. Their is the option of short or long sleeves, I went long, which has elastic gathering at the cuff. It looks cute and makes the top feel a little more streamlined.

The only tricky bit for me was, as usual, dealing with the fabric. By the time I got to sewing the neckline my interfacing (despite nuclear amounts of iron heat) had managed to completely un-attach itself from the facing fabric. I was already having issues with my bobbin thread tension, so decided to just solider on, the “she’ll be right attitude” I continue to persevere with despite no evidence of success thus far…

I wasn’t careful enough keeping a consistent distance sewing my neckline facing (a cavalier approach to seam allowances is coming back to haunt me!), so its a bit wider at one end. I need longer hair to cover it obviously!

Despite all of this, I wore my lovely top out today with jeans & long boots to a fab birthday lunch with friends, it felt great to wear & I could happily consume three delicious courses with ease, Happy Birthday to me!

I had this amazing cake made by the super talented Gourmet Gannet for my work morning tea , Tropical cake, made with passionfruit, pineapple & lemon, light , delicious and full of fruit so probably quite healthy…

Obviously my next make will be some form of stretchy waist yoga pant (yes alright, it should probably should be some form of “active wear”……..ok, lets not get silly shall we?)

Kristina xxx