Sun's Out! : Lisette B6464

Now that it's become seriously hot I've been getting a bit of wear from a little top that I made at the start of spring. It's the Lisette for Butterick B6464 Pull-over halter top.

This little pattern wasn't that high on my list of must-makes until I was playing around with the wrap around skirt fabric and the cream t-shirt and this unusual fabric leapt into that pile and demanded to join in the brick/cream sew along fun.

The fabric is by Kokka and is part of the Kuiskaus designer range, this one being known as Kuiskaus Kuplan Kukka. It's a very unusual fabric but absolutely gorgeous. The base is a cotton lawn of lovely quality and then it's "salt shrunk" in a process known as Enshuku to give a seersucker type effect. But instead of the traditional stripes of seersucker this is shrunk in big dots. It's been washed and ironed a couple of times and retains just enough texture and dimply-ness (too technical? At least you know what I'm meaning!)

One metre of this fabric came to me from Miss Matatabi courtesy of the lovely Emi who sent me a gift voucher a year ago. It hung around in my stash for that long until it found the perfect pattern. There are some other enshuku lawn fabrics on the Miss Matatabi site now and I know both The Cloth Shop and The Drapery have had (or still have?) these fabrics in stock. Get yourself some!

Liesl has made a few gorgeous versions of this patterns and between her recommendation and Justine of Sew Country Chick's comments (here and here) I knew to add length. I added as much as my one metre cut of fabric would allow, which I recall was maybe 2 to 3 inches.

As per their recommendations I thought I was sizing down a little from my measurements but found it still gaped a lot under the arms once it was made up. I always forget that while I've got shoulders and pecs, I ain't got no boobs! :) I tried fitting it as I went, but because the armholes get their bias binding before the neckband is attached it was hard to know just where it would sit. I ended up unpicking the bias binding around the underarm side seam and taking a good 3/4" off each side seam.

That solved the gaping, but of course it meant that the underarms now sit higher than they should. It's not disastrous but it's a minor annoyance that would have been fixed by narrowing and deepening the armhole rather than just taking in the side seam. The tip is definitely to size down and then add in an FBA if required.

I would absolutely make this top again and I think in a drapey silk it could look very formal, but in a cool lawn like this it's perfect for hanging out in the shade on a summer's day.

The extra length allows it to be tucked in as above or worn loose.

I'm not a hot weather fan at all, but I'm really enjoying some summer sewing. I've got another Liesl & Co top pattern in high rotation that still needs to be photographed and then a great sleeveless Vogue dress near completion too. Now where's my photographer....