Molly, Molly, Molly...

We've probably established by now that I'm kind of averse to buying any more patterns. I quite like hacking things I already have, and although I've only been sewing for a few months I've already lost patience with the whole PDF process, especially now that I'm back in work and sewing time is at a premium.

I had to make an exception, though, when I bought the Crafternoon edition of Mollie Makes and discovered that they'd included a free PDF of the Sew Over It Molly top. This is again quite a popular pattern that I'd resisted buying mainly because it's only available as part of a £20 ebook (My City Break), and I wasn't hugely keen on any of the other patterns. As I now had a free copy, it'd just be rude not to make one, right?

I've noted from a few people's Mollies that I only really like the top in stripes. I already have Tilly's Coco and Agnes patterns, which seem to be a better fit, however the way the stripes join around the shoulders is COOL. I decided to buy SOI's peaches and cream fabric to make the Molly. I also decided I could make it out of 1m...

Alas, sometimes my laziness and penny-pinching come back to bite me. First off the sleeves are too short (and I already have pretty short arms), because in spite of my wasted youth as a Tetris addict, there really wasn't any way that I was going to get this out of a metre. Secondly, I obviously didn't pre-wash the fabric, so while the sleeves were the only thing not-quite-right when I first wore this, it's now just too small. I've got away without pre-washing so many times now that I'd gotten really complacent, but I've really paid for it this time :( Looking at the photos it doesn't actually look that bad, so it might just be that I'm used to sleeves being really long on me. I did try stretching it out after its last wash, so maybe that helped a little - it's still not ideal, though.


I was actually a bit disappointed with the fabric when it first arrived, as I'd just been expecting something a bit softer, and it had a strange sort of sheen to it. The colour's not what I expected either, and changes a lot depending on the light - my partner actually referred to it as yellow at one point. It actually turned out to be really comfortable to wear, but then it really did shrink a lot in the wash. I know that's my fault, but I think my expectations of SOI might have been a bit high just because they come so highly recommended.

I'll make this again, just as soon as I find some striped fabric that I'm head-over-heels with. Aside from ordering more fabric and pre-washing it, I'll also top-stitch the shoulder and armhole-sleeve seams before I sew the side seams, as they're really conspicuous, and having them flop around under there really annoyed me on the couple of occasions that I did wear it.

I do really like the pattern, and it was quite a speedy make, so in spite of this make being a bit of a disaster, the Molly top probably be my go-to stripy top pattern in the future.