Mid-mod mash-up

And another nice cool linen top.

It’s my good friend Butterick B6056, but with a twist. The linen is a lightweight version, printed with this lovely mid-century modern tropical print which reminds me strongly of curtains my parents had in one of my childhood homes (in a quieter colour scheme!). Even as a small child, I’d lie in bed looking at the print and wondering why they hadn’t coloured in properly between the strong black lines and why the leaves were that strange colour. I must have been a very tidy-minded 5 year old…

However, it was an end-of-bolt remnant, and only 90cm/35 inches long, not enough for any pattern I had. Undaunted, I set about thinking sideways once again. I could get a sleeveless top out of it if I put a seam down the centre front instead of a fold, and if I added a sort of peplum doodah at the bottom to supplement the meagre 25 inch length from shoulder to hem. I was prepared to use a matching dark blue for the peplum, but in the end, careful measuring showed I could probably get enough extra out to make it from the main fabric.

So I cut the front and back and then pieced together a long 4 inch deep peplum out of all the scraps. I made bias binding from a blending pink fat quarter for the neck and armholes. Halfway through the assembly, I had to spend a tedious hour with the overlocker, rethreading it at least 4 times because thread 4 would not stay threaded. Still, I didn’t let it defeat me, and in the end, I was victorious. I debated whether to gather or put pleats in the peplum, and in the end went with pleats as I didn’t feel there was enough fabric to make gathers look good (nothing worse than stingy gathers). Also, my rear end is quite wide enough without a sticky-out frill thing; the pleats do at least lie flat. It’s a little shorter than I usually like, but worth it, I feel. And of course it’ll improve with washing, like all linen – at present it’s a bit stiff.

So there we are. Iteration No. 4 of this trusty pattern. Very happy with it, and the fabric cost me $6…