My Personal Illustrator cottoned me onto Sew Mama Sew the day she posted this cute top.


I got link happy with that sentence, sorry.

I want to make this cute top for my PI. But first, I had to practice on me.

It's good I'm always creating something, because I churn out a fair share of crap. This top proving no exception. It's not the fault of the pattern--see how cute it looks on Violet? It's the fault of having extra weight distributed in such a manner as to have several people ask when my baby is due. No, I'm not pregnant. Cute little baby-dolls like this fan out like a tent on me and only solicit more of said comments.

Again, darling on Violet, not so much on me.


My cousin suggested I belt it. Good solution, however, let's learn about waists. If you want to find your true waistline, tie a bit of elastic around your middle--just a little snug--and go about your business for about ten minutes. The elastic will naturally ride around to the narrowest part of you--your waist. My elastic sits "normally" around my back, but swoops right up to my bra in front. Actually, it's now about two inches below my bra these days since I've lost some weight, but still not an attractive line for a belt. Violet's waist is normal and sits parallel to the floor, ergo, a belt looks fine on her.

I'm determined to at least try and salvage this top. At the very least I could wear it as PJ's (though I would need to make bottoms) but it would be nice to have more clothing I'm willing to wear outside the house.


This top has pleats in front and back. I sewed the back pleats all the way down to my back waist, thereby removing some of the excess fabric, nipping in (and highlighting) the part of my waist that's more attractive (relatively speaking) and still leaving the front flow-y.

It's still not ideal (I need to tweak the hem a little now), but that little alteration helped a ton. The top looks more like the cute little top I wanted and less like a parachute.



Of course, it still looks great on Violet.

Stupid, enviable, hourglass figure.