I mentioned in my last blog post that I will be away starting Monday. Did I also mention that while we are away we are having all the hardwood floors in our house refinished? Yah. We have lived in this house since we were married 34 years ago. 30 of those 34 years we shared said house with dogs and children, which has taken a (major) toll on the oak floors. So when Hoover crossed the Rainbow Bridge in May, we decided to get all the floors redone. It's no consolation for his loss, but it will be nice to come home to beautiful shiny floors.
As you can imagine, the house is a shambles right now. We are essentially moving out after 34 years. We've pulled all the furniture from non-essential areas, which means my sewing machines and sewing tables are scattered between the basement and my office. I brought them home tonight so I could sew up a sun-protective top for my vacation. But they are currently sharing the home office, which we will dismantle this weekend, so they will go back to Gorgeous Fabrics' Galactic Headquarters in the morning.
The top I made is the V-neck from Simplicity S8924, View B.
It's very loose fitting, with a deep v-neck, dropped shoulders and long sleeves. It's designed for lightweight wovens, but since I'm going to someplace tropical (please dear lord, spare us any hurricanes) I made it from a SPF protective fabric. I don't carry those, so I got mine from a company in Colorado called Rockywoods. It's a knit, but it works quite well for this pattern. I could easily imagine it as something closer fitting, like a rash guard.
I sewed all my seams on my Juki serger, and I used my Juki coverstitch to do the hems and to affix the neckline binding. I used Steam-a-Seam Lite to prep the hems before sewing. Instead of using the recommended packaged bias tape (WHY, Simplicity, why???? 🙄) I used a one-inch wide strip of self fabric to finish the neckline.
It runs very oversized, which you can tell from the pattern photo on the model. I made a size 12, but I could easily have have gone down to a size 8 with no ill effects. Since I'm going to wear this over a bathing suit at the beach, I don't really mind. It is meant to be layered, so the neckline is bra-baring deep. If you plan to wear it on its own, and don't want to expose a Kardashian level of skin, you may want to raise the neckline.
Overall, this is a very easy top to make. The entire garment took a total of about one hour, from cutting out to the final press. Because it is so oversized, this is a good option for beginners who don't want to fiddle too much with fitting. I'm not very good at flat-lay, but here's my beach-side styling shot.
Alas, my sun hat just looks like a big old black hole, but I'm looking forward to wearing it.
Happy sewing!
Ann
