The Assembly Line Cuff Top

After seeing Fadanista's Cuff Tops, I decided I needed to try out this pattern for myself.  As I've stated previously, I am ambivalent about cut-on sleeves.  They seem to be fashionable, but personally, I find regular sleeves more comfortable.  For this reason, I wanted to use stash fabric to test out the pattern, rather than race out and buy something fabulous.  

After perusing my stash, I decided on a cotton voile, originally from EmmaOneSock.  I have a few cotton voile prints in my stash.  I bought them years ago, before I realised that I don't quite know what to do with a cotton voile.  You think voile is going to be cool and summery, but the softness of it falls against your skin, so it is not as cool to wear as a crisper cotton.  Also, it often needs lining, which seems to defeat the purpose of a cool cotton.  It is not sun protective enough to use for a summer cover up.  I don't wear floaty scarves.  What does everyone else do with voile?

Anyway, now that I don't live in the tropics, I thought I could use it for this top and wear it over a camisole.  I made this top a few months ago, and have been waiting for a chance to wear it.  The day these photos were taken, I wore it over a bamboo singlet.  We had some visitors, and being my first September in Perth, we set out in search of wild flowers.

The only change I made to the pattern was a narrow chest adjustment, so that the boat neck would sit better for me.

Assembly Line Apron Dress

I loved the aesthetic of the Assembly Line Apron Dress when it was first released, but it is rather an expensive pattern, and shipping costs would have made it more so.  Now that I live in a city and am not necessarily limited to online and holiday shopping, a whole new lot of resources have opened up to me.  I was delighted when I found this pattern stocked at Calico and Ivy.

I had this fabric in stash, patiently waiting for some version of a pinafore.  I purchased it a while back from Miss Matatabi.  The large white squares printed on the fabric are not printed evenly across the width of the fabric.  It is a large scale print, and I couldn't visualise how it was going to look made up.  I could have spent days overthinking, but life is short, so I just took to it with the scissors and cut the front with the print symmetrical and the back with the print not symmetrical (thinking symmetry at the back might have the opposite of a slimming effect).  Due to the width of the fabric, I had to cut the dress out on the cross grain, but I don't think that this is a problem.

I cut a straight size M, with my only fitting changes being the length of the straps and the placement of the buttons.  The straps are only basted in place because it always takes me a while to be happy with the length. I have changed them once already.  In keeping with the work wear aesthetic of the design, I used spare buttons from some King Gee uniforms.  I like these buttons because you thread a piece of ribbon through the button and sew the ribbon to the clothing, rather than hand stitch the button in place.  The pockets are positioned on the garment so that they are not quite flat, which allows room for the hand to slip into the pocket.  If I make this again, I might exaggerate that a bit more, as I still find it a bit hard to put my hands in the pockets.  

My family is a bit nonplussed by this garment.  They are not sure why I would want to wear an apron out of the house.