Stylearc Mimi Top

On a recent holiday to Melbourne, I had 10 minutes to duck into Tessuti whilst my family bought treats from the nearby Lune Croissanterie.  I'm not in a stash building phase, so I picked just one beautiful silk fabric to sew up straight away.  I'm not sure what this colour is even called, but I am seeing it everywhere at the moment (Pantone 2030 seems close, but it doesn't give it a name).  

In keeping with my "sew-not-stash" desire, I chose a simple pattern, the Stylearc Mimi woven top.  The feature of this top is the sleeves.

The sleeve gathering is a little unusual.  First, as series of tucks are sewn.

I changed the order of construction and finished the hems with a rolled hem on the overlocker after the tucks were sewn.  Most of this top was constructed on the overlocker.

Then rows of shirring were sewn over the tucks.  I chose to use the shirring method of zig-zagging over the shirring elastic and then pulling it to the desired amount of gathering, before knotting the ends of the elastic together.

The final result.  If I sew this top again, I will probably sew a few extra tucks, because I would like the sleeves to be a smidge tighter.

Because I hemmed the sleeve before sewing the sleeve seams, I decided to french seam the few cm near the hem.  Looking back, I'm not sure why I didn't just french seam the whole seam??

 We had a few warmer days this week, so I was able to wear it out.  I'm not coping too well in this cooler climate and can't wait for summer, so I can wear all my favourite clothes again.  I'm thinking that green shorts or pants to match the green in this fabric might be a good addition to my summer wardrobe.  It is an unusual green, but also seems very current, so I will be on the lookout for fabric.  Let me know if you see any this colour!