Stylish Dress Book 1: View E

It's the very last day of the Spring Top Sewalong today, so last night I set to work on my final submission. I know I could just sew tops anyway, but I do like a sewalong; it's a bit of incentive to see a project through and actually get something finished in a limited timescale.

View E from Stylish Dress Book 1 is the reason I bought the book in the first place. It's also the reason I bought 2.5 metres of Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks Voile from Raystitch almost two years ago. So back to the thing about needing an incentive to sew; clearly I'm not that self-motivated! I'd seen a beautiful tunic in the toast catalogue which was out of my price range, so this was going to be my take on that top. Mindful of how voluminous a lot of the patterns in the book are, the voile seemed like a good choice as it has a lovely drape.

Having made my last Spring top from the Stylish Dress book, I'd had a trial run to see how the sizing ran. I stuck with the size 11 here, which is just about a perfect fit, though I didn't add any extra length this time as I wanted it to be more of a tunic than a dress. Whilst there were no issues with following the pattern this time (see my last post for links to resources for sewing with Japanese patterns) I did refer to my trusty Complete Book Of Sewing (my go-to guide for most sewing techniques!) for some help with the neck facing, as the diagram in the Japanese book didn't go into much detail on this point. I wanted to get the finish as neat as possible without the neck facings being visible, so I ended up understitching the seams to the facing as directed by my sewing bible.

And here's the finished article, which I intend to wear with my skinny jeans or leggings and, very probably, a thick cardie if the weather continues to be so chilly:

When I had a quick (sleeveless) try on last night, and realised that it was actually going to be a wearable item of clothing, I broke out the overlocker to finish the seams properly as I was a bit nervous of the very fine voile fraying.

I really like the feel of the voile, it's super lightweight, soft, and has a lovely drape. If I was using it for a dress, I'd definitely line it though, as it's on the sheer side. The best thing is that I have a good sized piece of the voile leftover, to make a skirt for one or both of the daughters (not to be worn at the same time as my tunic!). I imagine it would make a lovely tiered twirly skirt, maybe pepped up with a brighter top for little-person chic.