Minty Frills

I was a bit surprised when I saw Vogue 1306 in their spring line up.  I thought that frills had finished their fashion moment in the sun, but seeing as I hadn't got around to making a frilly top, and I thought that shoulder frills would be flattering, I did buy the pattern.

I normally make up Vogue patterns according to the measurement charts, but for this one, I sewed a S when my measurements put me at an M.

I made it up in a remnant of rayon lycra knit.  I used my coverstitch machine and binding attachments to do the binding.  This did not turn out perfectly, and the binding seems to be gathering in the fabric a little too much.  I'm not sure how to correct this, except for stretching the fabric a little as it feeds.  I have had this problem with rayon lycra knits previously.

The top demonstrated some pretty ugly fit issues under the frills.

I compared the pattern to my t-shirt sloper to work out what was going on. 

Part of the problem was that I did not cut off the seam allowances before binding.  If you look at the back armscye, you can see that it has a straight edge and not a curve.  I think this may have been a lovely shape in a lightweight woven, and given that I went down a size, I am wondering if the pattern was designed for wovens and not moderate stretch knits, as the pattern envelope indicated.  Anyway, I took off the bindings, cut the curve to match my t-shirt sloper and had another go at binding.

You can still see the binding / gathering issue, but the fit is much improved.

Here you can see it paired with a skirt that I made pre-blogging days.  I love the fabric and colours of the skirt. It is a velvety knit.   I'm not sure how old it is, but I remember it to be John Kaldor fabric, and a quick google search has revealed that John Kaldor stopped selling fabric in Australia in 2004.  I think that the skirt is actually a couple of years older than that.