Finished - The Everlasting Spring

Sometimes you happen upon a fabric that is just glorious - there is no other way to describe it! Back when I outlined my autumn/winter sewing plans I mentioned I wanted to make some long sleeved dressy tops to wear out and about this winter, and in particular I was inspired by a beautiful printed silk long sleeve top my stylish bestie had acquired. It was very simple - a raglan long sleeve blouse, loose fitting, made from contrasting digitally printed silk. I decided my version would be made from my newly perfected New Look 6808/Laurel mashup (first successful crossbreeding posted here). Ideally I was after some silk or rayon, but couldn't find anything I was happy with and when I happened upon this extraordinary digitally printed polyester crepe at Darn Cheap my intrinsic synthetic prejudices were turned upside down. 

At $20/metre it was not cheap or nasty polyester. It had a lovely drape to it, amazing colours and being a crepe weave ever so slightly stretchy. I figured that I wanted to be warm, and if it wasn't the most breathable fabric I'd only be wearing in cooler weather...... It was so pretty! 

The print was directional, which meant I was limited with pattern placement, and I was careful not to have too obvious 'bunches of flowers' over le bust - but I didn't want to waste the print either. I think I've done ok in that department. Because I wanted to show off the print as much as possible I left the front fish-eye darts off, just adding bust darts and the back darts for shaping. 

It did fray something nasty, and in my never ending quest for the perfect finish sans-overlocker I decided to try french seaming the armscyes (following the Grainline tutorial) but I just couldn't make it happen. So I set them in normally and decided to bind the seams in rayon seam binding. Aesthetically this looked great but unfortunately the binding seemed to change the flexibility of the seams and made the armscyes feel tight and uncomfortable. Gutting! Especially as foolishly I bound BOTH armscyes before trying it on. Sigh. Off the binding came and on went my regular edge overcasting stitch. I also stuffed up binding the neckline and so it's ended up a touch too wide, but I can deal with that (so frustrating that something I've done so many times just didn't go to plan!).

I've worn it once already, and loved it - I felt chic, warm, comfortable, bright and fresh on a cold autumn night at a party full of black and grey-clad Melbournians! The colours are so intense, and the blue sky background and cherry blossom makes me feel happy as the days get colder and darker. Last year I made my first Colette Laurel and named it Winter Sunshine - I'm calling this one my Everlasting Spring!