I LOVE wearing wrap tops, but before I started sewing I usually found them a bit lower cut than I'd like - so I usually ended up with a safety pin in the middle of the bust, or wearing a vest underneath, and then I gave up. No excuses now, though.
With that and the kimono sleeves in mind, I thought I'd stick with a theme and go for a super high wrap neck. Inspired by My recent make from Rosie Martin's book, and fresh from a trip to the charity shop where I'd bought some duvet covers for making toiles, I traced the Bettine top onto the fabric, with the edge centred (not on the fold), then I flipped it over and traced around it again. For my version I measured 16cm from the waistline, then drew a straight line between the this point and the corner of the front neckline. As my duvet fabric was already doubled over, I cut around the shape and ended up with two mirror images. I then cut the back of the bettine bodice out once, pinned everything together, sewed, and tried it on. The fit seemed pretty good, though the duvet fabric was relatively stiff.
I did the same on my new fabric. Sadly I didn't have enough of the pink '80s viscose left, but that's probably just as well since my pal Nikki somehow chose the same fabric for her Bettine dress (this blew my mind). Mine will become a skirt once I've unpicked the top.
Here's the fabric I went for second time round. It's a cotton lawn and was <£5/m from Abakhan, but it's now sold out! This was my first time ordering from them, and it arrived really quickly.
To construct the dress I first sewed the shoulders and then applied bias binding the whole way round the neckline, from the waist to the neck and back down to the other side of the waist. It was probably a little bit easier than the original Bettine, just because I've had quite a bit of practise with binding now, and I think I found the facing on the original pattern a little fiddly at the time.
The rest of the construction went well, though I was getting a little nervy towards the end of the hem, as I knew my bobbin was running low. In the picture below, that little piece of thread is all that was left on the bobbin when I'd finished! I'd used the same reel of thread for my spot pocket skirt, so this isn't as bad as it looks!
Anyway, if you've read any of my other posts then you can probably guess where this is going, and you'd be totally right... It's unlikely that I'm going to wear this an awful lot. Sigh.
I think the fabric's totally fine, and it'd probably look awesome on a fitted dress, but it's still maybe not quite drapey enough for the loose-fitting top. It also didn't occur to me at any point before I'd tried this version on that the neckline and sleeve combination bears more resemblance to hopsital scrubs than a kimono; I think the shape's fine on the toile because of the contrast between the skirt and bodice, but on this I just don't think it works at all. It looks marginally better with the little black belt I wore it with, but I think it really needs some exposed binding around the neckline, or some other detail. I don't really know what to do with it, so it'll live with my unfinished projects until I have a brainwave...
Moving on, I'm currently working on a Coco dress, a Rosa shirt, and an Anna dress, and hope to have at least one of them finished in time for a post next week.
If anyone has any tips on choosing fabrics then please let me know - I do an awful lot of thinking and reading before I buy anything, but feel like I'm still getting really basic things wrong. I hope all your makes are going better than mine!
xx
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