Ottobre tops

Suddenly these kids grow and nothing seems to fit them. That was the case with any long sleeve tops that A had, so time for some more

I had a couple of Ottobre magazines that were languishing, hardly used. I figured some simple tops would be a good way to get over those horror Ottobre pants.

This pattern is number 21: Owl Princess from Ottobre 1/2014. it's a simple swingy, flared long sleeved T. I have a German language back copy, but they emailed the English instructions for me to print at home.

The pattern tops out at size 134cm which is a fraction under her current measurements, but was worth a try. I made no modifications to the width, but added 1&1/2" torso length around the waist as I know she has a super long body. No sleeve changes either - they're nice and long!

The umbrella print cotton knit was a long stashed fabric from the $4/m table at Spotlight. Not great quality and only after I'd cut it did I notice the print fault that is on the front, but it's subtle (unfortunately it looks exactly like a faint toothpaste dribble, but oh well).

The Ottobre neckband binding instructions were nice, and it is a binding, rather than a neckband. That saves adding seam allowance to at least one part of the pattern. The neckband is just stretched to fit so  there's a bit of potential for user error if you're not practiced at binding necklines. I don't mind that though, as every fabric will behave differently and so a set length can be equally frustrating.

I put one of Kylie and the Machine's cute labels at the back as there's no centre back neckband seam as my kids are used to.

She surprised me with how much she liked it. I'd had little expectation as I was just using up stash fabric and an old pattern. Happy times.

Feeling buoyed I jumped straight in with another version of the same. This one was all about the iron on jewelled transfer that I'd scored at Jimmy's Buttons a while back.

It needed a plain fabric. and I was surprised to find that my stash of plain cotton lycras had dwindled quite a bit. This red was the perfect choice to let the silver, black and yellow diamantes stand out.

A few of the jewels had slipped from their position and it took a bit of tweezering to get the motif set properly. Once ironed on, they're pretty solid. I've just handed down the last top with jewels on the front after it had been washed many times without any coming unstuck.

She was very happy with this one too. These two were both my choice of pattern and fabric, but the top she had requested when flipping through the  magazine with me was pattern 32: Fly Away, a bat wing top.

This is a very simple pattern with only two pieces and a neckbinding. The shoulder seams end up bias cut and so to stop them stretching out a ribbon is applied down the seam. 

The green merle knit which may have some wool content was in the stash but no ribbon that matched. I couldn't find any that looked good  in shops either so I ended up using a bias binding. 

This pattern goes all the way up to 170cm size so it may get made a few more times in the future. Here, it's a straight size 140.

The high/low hem with elastic is kind of fun. On the model it's shown more gathered making it almost look like the top is tucked in. The modelled shot also shows the sleeve worn pushed up on one side, but the other side has it more of a "bracelet" length, so I'm guessing it's meant to be worn shorter. You can see the difference in length between this one and the first top, and this one is a size larger.

She particularly loves this one, but has discovered that it's hard to wear a bat wing top if you need to put a jumper or coat over the top. Now that spring has arrived with some delicious warmth I think it will be in high rotation.

Another treat for me is that she has decided to wear all of P's outgrown jeans. These are Oliver + S Art Museum pants which were new back here, and the navy pants earlier in the post were these Burda pants that he outgrew quite quickly (they're like new!)