Hey, Sewists! I am excited to share another Zierstoff Patterns creation for the Show Your Stoff tour.  Before I talk about my new make, I have to confess that I am one of those who is completely obsessed with the HGTV show Fixer Upper.  Chip and Joanna Gaines are totally adorable, share a deep love of each other, and keep humor alive in their relationship.   Joanna’s design style has given me a newfound love of shiplap and shopping for antiques.  More than that though, I am smitten with Joanna’s personal wardrobe style.  She is down to earth and wears lots of flannel plaid and army green.  Be still my heart!  Okay, all gushing aside, she wore a navy and brown top in an episode that I loved and knew I had to make.  Hours after watching her wear this top I saw Melissa’s call out for sewing bloggers to join this tour.  I found the Alizia batwing top and knew exactly what I was going to be making.

For this top, I used all stashed fabrics! Can I tell you, I am feeling pretty confident in my stashbusting efforts so far this year. Anyways, for most of the top, I used 1.75 yards of Patriot Blue Rayon Lycra Jersey from Fabric Mart. I purchased this fabric in 2016 for $4.00 a yard. For my accent details, I used .75 yards of a tan faux suede 2-way stretch fabric. This fabric has been languishing in my stash for over 10 years! I think that it was purchased sometime between 2004 and 2005, with the intention of using it for a fairy type of renaissance festival costume. I figured that since I had not made the costume in the last 10 years that I was probably never going to make it and it was safe to use this fabric for another project. I have no idea how much I originally spent on it since it was well before started keeping track of that.

Much like the Pia Dress pattern I stitched up before, I have the same concerns for new sewists with these PDF patterns. Also like my Pia Dress, I still ended up with a great finished garment.

I did make a couple of changes to the neckband piece due to my fabric choices. Since the fabric is only a 2-way stretch I ended up cutting it two inches longer. This allowed me to be able to fit the neckline of the jersey into the neckband with l little more ease and help the neckline to lay flat without puckers. I also took a deeper seam allowance around the neck than the pattern calls for. The instructions say to use a 3/8” seam allowance, however, my neckband was not laying flat and stuck up instead. It was also a bit tight to pull on over my head. To remedy this I stitched the neckband at 5/8” This made all the world of difference. The end result was having a neckband that was just over a 1/2” wide and laid flat against the body. To help keep it laying flat, I topstitched around the neckline of the jersey. Topstitching this type of neckline is my personal preference, as I think it helps to give a cleaner look to the finished garment.

All in all, I am pretty pleased with how this top turned out.  If you have not checked out Zierstoff Patterns yet, go do it now!  Zierstoff is giving everyone 30% off your purchase.

Check out the rest of the stops on the Show Your Stoff blog tour.
Monday’s Bloggers: (direct links to Show Your Stoff posts)
Anne-Mari Sews, Inspinration, Tenille’s Thread, Sew Cucio, Embrace Everyday

Tuesday’s Bloggers: (direct links to Show Your Stoff posts)
Musings of A Seamstress, mahlicadesigns, Anna’s Heirloom Boutique, Ronda B Handmade, FABulous Home Sewn

Wednesday’s Bloggers: (direct links to Show Your Stoff posts)
Thread and Scissors, Kaleidothought, Idle Sunshine, mahlicadesigns

Thursday’s Bloggers: (direct links to Show Your Stoff posts)

Very Blissful, Sew A Piece of Joy, Zowie Zo, Nina Makes, Lulu & Celeste, Thread and Scissors.

Friday’s Bloggers: (direct links to Show Your Stoff posts)
Tales of a Tester; Anne-Mari Sews; Bless, by Tone; Life Sew Savory; Needles to Say, and Adventures with Bubba and Bug

Saturday’s Bloggers: (direct links to Show Your Stoff posts)
Musings of A Seamstress, Anna’s Heirloom Boutique, Ronda B Handmade, Glitter in my Coffee, Anne-Mari Sews, Stitches by Laura; Tea, Dust and Stitches

8 Comments

  1. I love your shirt and have to admit to having watched a few episodes of Fixer Upper myself! It’s great to finally use those stash fabrics!

  2. Cute! Joanna’s decorating style doesn’t always line up with my taste, being heavy on the neutrals, but I do enjoy watching the show. And it’s refreshing to have a female host who isn’t afraid to go around in t shirts, since that’s way more realistic for actually working on houses! The color blocking looks great, and good for you on the stashbusting!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Visit Us On TwitterVisit Us On FacebookVisit Us On YoutubeVisit Us On PinterestCheck Our Feed