Tough Love Mellowed Down

Well my rendition of the Burda Grommet top, definitely doesn't reflect the mean and moody look it's intended, but I totally fell in love with the whole Tough Love Collection earlier this year; I have purchased four of the looks within this collection and will endeavour to complete each at some point in the near future. Generally, I haven't used pdf download patterns, and have concluded they have both pros and cons just as regular commercial or Indie printed patterns. 

My sewing recently has tended to have a bit of a bish,bash,bosh approach, not something I'm particularly proud of or advocate, but you know what...sometimes the need to just get on an sew something is just tooo great, and find that I just have to feed the addictive craving (same with wine, chocolate, shoes...... do you have mad overwhelming desires that just have to be met!?) 

With the sewing demons rumbling - I dived headfirst from the 10 metre board into the "grommet top" and cut a  regular size 36, (totally forgetting about the usual inch lengthening that I need) so no surprise when the result ended up being a tad short in the length and and pretty big across the chest!  (wearing this means I have to be slightly conscious of potential mid-riff on show when stretching, or over-exposure when leaning forward, OOOO!) 

I used a soft yellow cotton jersey, not over stretchy and perhaps a little on the thick side to really carry off  the ruching across the shoulders. 

The pattern called for a cotton twill with  eyelets for the neck band but I couldn't source the right colour, so went with cutting out two strips from  the left overs and stabilized with a fusible stretch interfacing. As i'm into adding detailing aspects into my sews at the moment, I was quite keen to retaining the eyelet detail, and purchased a box of hemline eyelets- these did prove pretty tricky and pretty bizarre when your sewing incorporates a lump-hammer! especially when you hit your fingers, Ouch,... one of the kids even came down from bed asking "what all the banging about"! some of the eyelets turned out great but a number did "splay" out on the underneath part.   

I do love the detailing on this pattern, the ruching is created by stitching bias tape on the inside, creating casings, additional shorter bias strips are then inserted into the said casings- voila ruching! .

The whole sew was very quick and easy, has to be with only two pattern pieces- x2 front and back plus the neck bands.   

Although, this top has its errors and imperfections, I do still like it, to the extent that I really want to make it again but with a bit more thought. Grade down the sizing, use a softer drapier fabric and master them eyelets. 

Next up on the sewing table are two dresses for a forthcoming wedding ( one for the day and one for the evening reception!) these will require lots of thought, drafting and time endurance to create the look I am aiming for ...

heres a sneak preview :) xxx

Day Dress 

Evening Reception