Mint in the Morning

Pregnancy, post-partum, moving -- three stages in life that are not particularly conducive to curating a "normal" wardrobe. Mine was certainly in distress! I've been good about paring down and getting rid of clothes that I no longer needed/wanted, but was starting to feel a bit of a pinch if I let the laundry go longer than a few days. With plenty of fabric on hand, the solution seemed obvious.

I had a mint knit in my stash, purchased from Girl Charlee many moons ago. It's a lovely spandex knit, so it has just enough body for this type of top. The top is a fairly unabashed knock-off of ModCloth's Mid Morning Break top. It's been a while since I've done such a straight-up copy of a garment, and it was rather fun! I used the basic tee pattern that I've tweaked over time. I still make tweaks every time I use it (usually taking in some fabric in the side seams), but it's a good base.

I opted for a "band" at the bottom, like the original inspiration top. It ended up a bit shorter
than my tops usually do, but ti works. I do have to tug it down now and again, though!

Of course, I gave it a bit of my own spin. A keyhole opening in the back seemed just right, as did a little bit of a cap sleeve. The cap sleeve was an easy draft (an elongated "football" shape folded in half -- ta da!), though it ended up sticking out further than intended -- I believe because the shoulder of my pattern was a bit too wide. Never mind, a bit of hand gathering turned that mishap in to another feature. The collar was a relatively easy draft, though I ended up redoing it; my first attempt came out rather uneven! Apparently knit is a bit harder in that regard than woven fabric.

I had to re-bind the neckline after the first time I wore it. I'm used to stretching knit neckbands as I sew them on, but in this case that resulted in a rather wonky, bumpy collar. Not the look I was going for! I put on a new binding, no stretching this time (there really wasn't any need to, anyway).

I have a few other yards of random knits in my stash, which I'm hoping to turn into more tops soon -- it's time to start incorporating some of the fun little details I've collected on my Pinterest boards! Oh, and more on that skirt in the first photo in my next post.