Cynthia Rowley Strawberry Top

Hello there! I hope you all are doing well. For my ‘Murrican friends, I hope you survived tax day. DD and I barely did, but we’re glad it’s all behind us now. ‘Til next year…

Anyway, I’m going to share a top that I had high hopes for, but I believe the fabric is what brought me down. I’m all about sharing the good with the bad because it’s important to learn from our mistakes… and because I just like posting on a regular basis – it’s fun!

I made the top, view D, from the Simplicity 1314 Cynthia Rowley pattern.

This is only the second CR pattern I’ve made, but I’m impressed with the fit right out of the package. Unlike most other Simplicity patterns, I don’t have to do any tweaking to make it look right. I cut a straight size 10 for this top and it’s perfect!

I used a medium weight quilting cotton that I got on super sale (I think I paid a little over $1/yard!) at a local home-fabric store closing sale. It’s red with tiny yellow dots and DD thinks I look like a strawberry. I originally wanted to make this shirt in a chambray of some sort, but thought I would try it out with the cheapo fabric. As you can see, it’s wrinkly at all the seam lines. I SWEAR I press the bajeesus out of my seams every time I make one, I guess it’s just this fabric.

Wrinkly seams 😦

 

There’s lots of seam lines in this pattern, so as you can see, there’s lots of wrinkles. I still think it’s a cute top and I got a compliment by a GUY at work last week… I guess guys don’t notice poor fabric quality?  That at least made me feel less self-conscious about wearing it in public. I know I don’t HAVE to wear my projects, but if I spent all that time making it, then darnit, I’m going to wear it even if it’s frumpy!

But you gotta love those weird wing sleeves, huh?

This shirt was pretty fast to make, considering all of those seams. I basted all the seams first to check the fit, then serged for prettiness! Here she is inside out:

The hourglass shape hugs the curves nicely but it was a b$&^$ sewing the intersection of the seams at the waistline!

But check out that seam matching with the invisible zipper! That makes me super happy every time. 🙂

I love the way serged edges look! I’m in awe every time I make a seam with Freya – I’m easily impressed, ha!

I hand-tacked the facing in the front because it got a little floppy.

The shoulders were new to me. The pattern has you sew the “wings” first, the you sew self-made bias tape around the armhole. I’m not used to using bias tape on something with sleeves, but these don’t go all the way around the armhole, so I guess that’s why you need it. The pattern wants you to sew the bias tape down with topstitching, but the shoulders would be the only area with visible stitching and I thought that would look weird, so I just hand stitched it down:

If you squint, you can see the teeny stitch marks! I think those have something to do with the wrinkle-factor on the shoulders, though… but I still like to blame the fabric!

I think the pattern is neat and different, but I’m not really sure if I’ll make it again. I thought I would LOVE it, but I’m not really feeling it. I’m going to wear her a bit more, though, but I think she may end up in the Goodwill pile in a year or two. But then again, who knows? Maybe I’ll learn to love her?

Woops, look at the time – I gotta go get ready for an outdoor festival. This may be the last fun outdoorsy thing DD and I will do because SUMMER IS COMING. I’m going to frolic about in a new make that I’ll post about later on – I LOVE it and know you will, too! ‘Til next time!

-RED