Tweaked

I started this top about two months ago, wanting to experiment with some nursing friendly styles -- sure, you can just pull up any ol' knit top, but why not try something new? I cut it out using my self-drafted knit top pattern, making the necessary changes for a criss-cross top. However, I quickly halted the project when I realized that there was no way I could fit the top properly with a baby bump (and I strongly suspected the top would be too small until I'd lost a fair bit of baby weight). And I'm glad I waited! This top required a ridiculous amount of tweaking. In fact, after sewing up the side seams I wondered if it would ever be wearable. I'm going to blame the fabric, which is a not-very-stretchy slub knit. But it was only $1 a yard at Wal Mart, so I suppose I can't really complain!

This was going to be a basic top, with sleeve tabs as the only real feature. But as I tweaked, other details appeared. A pleat here, ties there, and a back "bow" to top it off. In the end I'm happy with the result. It works well for nursing  it's quite comfortable, and I like the style. I think I'll like it even better when I've shed a few more pounds of baby weight. *wink* I'm using it with a "half cami" -- a regular camisole that I cut off at the midriff to wear with low-cut garments -- but it would work with a nursing tank, too (the two that I have are on the thick side, so not ideal for layering under a top like this).

Besides all that, it was quite therapeutic to get back to sewing -- though I forced myself to deal with several mending/alteration projects that had piled up first! Now that they're out of the way, it's time to tackle the stash once again...