Lisette B6182 - Monochrome for me

Suddenly, I was seeing black and white fabrics everywhere and I found myself fondling a patterned rayon challis at Spotlight. It needed to come home with me and be turned into a summer top to wear.

 

This is my first ever me-made woven tee. The pattern is Lisette for Butterick B6182. A lovely simple tee with a kimono sleeve with a cuff and a neckband facing. No fastenings or closures of any kind, so it's a quick and easy sew.

I made a size 16 and added just one inch to the length. I knew it was intended to be fairly short and I liked the idea of a top that I could wear with a high-ish waisted skirt or my still unblogged Girl Friday Culottes.

The top has a bit of an A line flare. At this size, on me it's a good fit in the shoulders and doesn't look oversized or sloppy. Then it kicks out to be quite a swingy little top. I love it!

It also has a centre seam at the front with a bust dart which brings the centre front in close to my chest. This is novel for me and I really appreciate how it gives the appearance of two separate boobs, rather than one "frontage" from which the fabric falls. Maybe that doesn't work if you have an ample bosom, or less space between your boobs. but I'm liking it a lot.

The fabric, which feels slinky and light was really easy to work with and I'm a complete convert to rayon challis now. I'm sure I'll have another one of these before the summer is out.

Now, out into the full sun to see a bit more of the skirt:

The skirt is from the same pattern. It's got a bit of a safari skirt vibe with the deep inverted front pleat and the patch pockets. I threw caution to the wind and just picked a size 16 and went with it.

I'm more than happy with the fit, but if I was to make another I would split the waistband into front and back waistbands so that I could taper it slightly and have the top of the waistband a bit narrower. It tends to stick straight up and away from my waist a bit at the top.

While I didn't change the shape of the waistband, I did deviate from how the pattern suggested to sew it. The patterns says to slipstitch the waistband facing to the invisible zipper and then slipstitch the whole inner waistband at the waist seam. Blow that. I turned the waistband inside out and machine stitched it at the zipper, then smoothed and pinned to edgestitch the outer waistband and catch the waistband facing in that seam. Quick and effective.

This outfit worked perfectly for a warm and dusty day sightseeing at Sovereign Hill. That was enough posing and we're off to pan for gold or shoe a horse or some such thing.

Details:
Pattern: Lisette B6182 blouse and skirt
Size: 16 (1 inch length added to blouse)
Fabrics: Blouse - Rayon challis from Spotlight. Skirt: Lightweight drill from Rathdowne Fabrics