Soller Top - It's a Quickie

This is the Soller top from Itch to Stitch. It was a very fast sew! There's only one front and one back piece plus neck and sleeve bindings, and everything goes together very well. I like the top and the pattern a lot and I can see myself reaching for the Soller for more quick tops to be worn both at the office and around the house. 

The fabric is from Gorgeous Fabrics, one of the last pieces of fabric I bought before the sewjo up and vanished a couple of years ago. It was listed as a pique finish ITY but it feels more like Liverpool. I like the texture of it. The background is navy, although it shows up close to black here.

Below is the "envelope" cover for the pattern, with the designer Kennis modeling. As you can see, her finished top is at high hip level. I added about 3 inches in length to mine, 1 inch at the lengthen/shorten lines and 2 inches to the hem. I would have added everything to the hem but because I had to blend sizes dramatically due to Pandemic Butt, I opted to add some of the extra length near the waist to smooth out the resulting curve from the blending.

The bindings are "old school," meaning no coverstitch machine was used, and remind me of my sewing days before coverstitchers and sergers and using Kwik Sew methods. (RIP Kwik Sew.) Just attach binding RS to top RS, flip the binding over the neckline edge, and stitch-in-the-ditch from the top to catch the other side of the binding. You can see a hint of my ditch stitching. It really is a good method and faster than setting up my binder on the coverstitch machine.

For the vee "point," you clip at the point and attach the binding in a straight line and then stitch at the center to (re)create the vee. The print placement sort of makes my vee look off-center, but it's not. It is actually a true perpendicular line down from neck edge to point.

There is some "interest" at the upper chest, using clear elastic and a zigzag stitch to create gathers. If you make this top/dress, I would advise cutting your elastic longer than the pattern instructions so you have "tails" to hold on to when starting/stopping your zigzagging. You can then trim the excess tails off once your elastic is attached.

I did pull out the coverstitcher for the hem. Nothing too exciting here.  

The only other change to the pattern/instructions I made was to add about an inch to the bottom of the sleeve and to attach the binding strip as a band and not as a binding for a bit more length. As the pattern is, the sleeves are more like cap sleeves and I wanted a little more coverage. I also edgestitched the seam allowances up.

Nothing too fancy here either. I didn't even use my serger to finish the edges, choosing to keep this "old school" as well. I did serge the shoulder and side seams which you can alllllmost see down at the bottom left of the photo below.

Here's the top with a RTW navy maxi which matches perfectly. I also have more than enough of this fabric left for a matching skirt to create yet another 2-piece dress, which I will probably do at some point. Cyrus isn't yet sure what to make of Zillie. Until recently, she hadn't really been in use much since Cyrus came to live with me.

Since I've been using stash fabric for my recent projects, I gave myself permission to shop a couple of Labor Day sales. I really hadn't bought fabric in well over two years, so I have a lot of catching up to do. Hah.