Top finished

As I posted recently, not much going on in my sewing room.  Yesterday evening I finally sat down and hemmed my new top M7019.  I took photos of the top hanging.

Back

Front

I played around with lighting to better showcase the fabric colors on the view of the front, but still not showing how the colors truly look.  The stripe fabric is from Sew Much Fabric and the black is a lighter weight double knit from my stash and not sure if this came from Fabric Mart or Mood.

The bottom piece of the top wraps around to the front.  I ended up having to take 3/8 inch seams through the hip area to the bottom edge as it was a little snug.  I still could use a smidge more width in that area and will add that to the next version.  I used Sandra Betzina technique for increasing the bust area which worked out good as I did not want a dart at the bust. 

I made a 5/8 swayback adjustment with the top and after sewing the back bottom to the upper back, I went back and sewed an additional 3/8 tapering back to original 5/8 near side seams.  This helped with too much fullness in that area.

The top was very long on me, more like a tunic which was not the look I was going for.  I ended up serging off 5/8 inch from the bottom edge before turning up a 1 1/4 inch hem.  The neckband stands away from my neck at the shoulder seams and at the front a little.  I have thought about taking a small tuck in the front neckband area treating it as a design feature.  I am not sure if it is due to the type of knit or I needed to have made the neckline a little tighter.  

All in all I do like the top and will wear it.  I planned to make a skirt with elastic waist to go with from the same fabric.  I still plan to make the skirt but not sure how the top style will work with the skirt.  It looks good with pants.

I wish I could capture the color of the fabric better in the photos as it has silver metallic threads running vertically, plus golden brown or rust color as well as some gray and of course black.

More later.