Twinkle Sews - Age of Innocence

So I don't like this. The pattern was rated easy and it was. But I had make design changes. At the bottom where your hips are Wenlan has you gather the lace on the outside the attach it gathered to the lining then insert elastic into the seam allowance where the gathering is RESULTING in massive baggy and puffy poufs ON YOUR HIPS. When I realised this I took the top apart at the hips removed the elastic and removed the gathering from the lace. I then sewed the lace to be the same size as the lining at the side and re-attached it. I then added elastic to the seam allowance using it as a casing as Wenlan suggest but all the way around to distribute the gathering. The back yoke is long and once again you are asked to put elastic in the seam
allowance. This makes the back fit your body but causes the top of the yoke to flop out as its longer and not gathered so your bra is exposed then when I pinned the lace to it as its top stitched on as the last step it just hangs right down. So I took it in with my overlocker before attaching the lace over the top. This photo shows how much I cut out. Its a lot as the lace goes over the top you don't see this at all from the outside. This also meant I had to make to two extra pleats to match the lace up to the lining. All this work for a top that I don't really like now its done.The photos in the book show you a flat picture of the whole top but the bagginess is not obvious  in this picture and when they show it on the model you don't see her hips.

Simplicity 2364 view A

I really like this top I have sewn it three times now. The first above is mine. I used a remnant of velvet with multi coloured sequins on it and a cream double knit. It looked terrible when I tried it on I was disappointed until I worked out that the shrug part was too loose on me. I pull it up at the back of the neck and it made all the difference. It would have been to difficult to undo it so I pinned it and sewed it at the join at the back of the neck. I also grabbed the pattern piece and measured my adjustment and altered my pattern. This means the the centre back seam is now on an angle not straight. I know I could have taken it out from under the arm but I wasn't confident I would get it right. The velvet fabric has almost no stretch so I am lucky I can get it on and off!

My Mum loved it and
here she is wearing one
of the two I made for her.
I am wearing the other
one (Yes we are almost
the same size). I don't
have a tripod and half
cut my head off. Then
cropped the rest off as
it looked silly. The illustrations of how to attach the shrug could be better but its not that hard. I just pinned then turned it out the right way to make sure. I have made Simplicity 2364 view E,D and F combination. I only need to make this in view B then I am done view C is the suggestion of a combination of fabric. I don't think I would make this in one colour I like it to much with a combination.

Burda 8361

First Top

Is the one on the right (black, green and white). I had the same problem as everyone who has reviewed this pattern the baggie bust. I have found it is because the gathering goes to far down around the bust to the side of the top your bust is higher than this. The top was way to long from the shoulder to the bust so I had to take 2.5" out of the shoulders at the top. Lucky the arm hole opening is quite long so it still fits under the arm.

Under Bust

Second Top

I adjusted the pattern for this top so that the arm hole would be the original size this is much better. This would be especial important if you wanted to sew the top of the sleeve together. You cant really see it in these photos but I left the sleeve top open as option A suggests. To fix the baggie bust I have only gathered from about 1" away from the centre point until the pattern pieces fitted together. This had made the sides of the top sit perfectly flat against my side. I also angled the line under the bust up just a bit as I felt it went to low for me on the original. This is a great top it is an exact copy of a top that I bought RTW which is why I picked this pattern. I have plans to make this in a few different fabrics.

Burda 7866

I am happy with mine but I made the smallest size which is 10 it looks so much bigger on me than it looks on there model. Its really comfy I used a double knit. It is a little annoying fixing the unattached belt all the time. I have plans to make a modified version based on what I saw someone else do with this pattern. They eliminated the belt by using elastic at the sides of the bottom piece to give it a gathered look.

Simplicity 2364

This was quick and fairly easy. I combined VIEW D, E and F because I wanted the sleeve plus I like to ware a bra so I wanted the strap. My husband didn't tell me I was showing my bra strap rather than covering it up when he took the photo. The only alteration I made was the strap was way to loose for me and I had to unpick it at the back and make it tighter then it was fine. I found the gathering part a bit tricky as when I sewed it up I used the stretch stitch and it just stretched right out so I pulled the gathering up and used a straight stitch so then it held. But its not as neat having to fix it up as it would have been if I had straight stitched it in the first place. This will be a great top when its warmer.

Kwick Sew 3694

Bad photo I know but the ones my 5YO took weren't any better. Supper easy to sew even with the slippery fabric. Bohemian evening knit from spotlight. This is a size small but as you can see the sleeves are not 3/4 length on me and its not as fitted as I would like. Hard to tell in the photo as the fabric drapes really nice so its okay. I will make the next one in a xSmall and maybe adjust the sleeves as they are too baggy when they get to my wrist but if I push them up they fit my arm like a 3/4 sleeve would. I will make more of these there is a sleeveless version too.