Colette Laurel: The Tops

And then there were four.

In addition to the two Laurel dresses I showed you last week, I also made two Laurel tops that have had a ton of wear this Spring: one in grey chambray and another beautiful nani IRO print in double gauze.



Let's start with the green nani IRO, because it's my favourite item in my closet at the moment. It's comfortable, fits great and can look both dressy and casual. I must wear it a lot, because Mike has started calling it my "everyday green top", sung to the tune of "Everyday People". Haha! Feel free to sing along as you scroll through.

I made very similar adjustments to the top as I did with the dress, again in a size 2: lowered the armhole, widened the back darts and lowered the back dart apexes. I found the top too short as well, which is odd, because I always cut at least 2 inches from all my hemlines. Does that mean I'm long-waisted? I ended up having to add a hem facing to make it work. Which of course I sewed the wrong way around the first time. Doof.

I fully intended to eliminate the zipper and use one back piece, but forgot to account for the seam allowance, so had to take it in along the center back anyway. Double doof.

And again, I used French seams and hand-stitched the bindings.

This grey chambray top was actually the muslin for my dress. (A muslin is the test version of a garment.) Originally it had lacy cutouts along the hem, but it ended up being too long so I was happy to cut it off to test the top version and the sleeve flounces.

I was surprised that I liked those sleeves as much as I do. I think part of the reason it works is because it's a solid colour, so the extra "flare" doesn't compete with anything. Does that make sense? I think I'll be more keen to try more details that I'm resistant too now, so that's a good thing.

For some reason this top ended up a little too tight once I washed it. See the wrinkling around around the arms and chest? I'm 90% sure I pre-washed the fabric, but it was pretty old, so who knows. It's still wearable, once it stretches out a bit, but I find myself tugging at it sometimes to get it to behave. Part of the reason I make my own clothing is so that I don't have to pull and tug and feel uncomfortable in my clothes, so this bugs me. But it's still pretty cute, so I'll wear it for awhile longer. Maybe I'll make a larger copy in the fall.

After four Laurels, I figured I'd be done with this pattern for awhile. I carefully folded up the patterns and filed them away in my pattern binder. But today I found an amazing summery fabric that just screamed Laurel to me. So I guess you'll see Laurel #5 soon enough!